Yesterday, the Dutch Baseball Hangout posted a blog post of fellow blogger Words Above Replacement on its Facebook page and Twitter account. The blog post emphasizes the vile behaviour of MLB regarding its minor leaguers. Today an article of Baseball America emphasized it a little more.
The blog post of Words Above Replacement was about the fact that MLB has decided that MiLB will not use host families because of COVID19. For MiLB players this is quite a disaster as the host families provided them a roof over their head, something they cannot afford with their meager pay.
The reason why MLB decided to skip the use of host families is quite understandable with a virus still floating around, so no complaints about that. But with their still meager pay, MiLB players now have to arrange housing themselves. MLB is not helping them at all. And that is the disgusting part about it. MLB is creating a problem but leaves it to the players to solve it themselves… MLB clubs have the money to spend on big multimillion contracts but don’t want to spend money to make life for their minor leaguers a little bit easier.
But, Baseball America published another article about the behaviour of some MLB clubs. Players at the alternate training sites are paid, which is a miracle. But when it comes to food and housing, the MLB clubs can decide for themselves if they will provide housing and food. I think you may guess it: There are several clubs that do NOT provide housing and food as the training and work the players are doing at the alternate training sites, are not part of the season.
The article by Baseball America was initiated by a tweet of Advocates for Minor Leaguers:
Once again, the greed of MLB owners is astounding. You can only wonder why people still flock to MLB ballparks, knowing this is happening.
Dutch Baseball Hangout 