MLB to Take Care of Housing Costs of MiLB Players in 2022

Great news. Yesterday an Instagram post floated around the internet. The post stated that MLB would take care of the cost of housing of their MiLB players. But since Instagram posts are not really official, yours truly waited with posting about it. But now ballparkdigest.com is coming with the news, one can say it is official.

In the past months, players have complained publicly about their situation. They were represented by Advocates for Minor Leaguers. This organization run by a former minor leaguer did everything possible to expose the wrongdoings by MLB in Minor League Baseball.

According to ballparkdigest.com, MLB will now take care of the housing cost for their minor league players in 2022 and beyond.

Minor League players were in a tough situation. Especially during the past season as MLB forbid to use hosting families, that are the backbone of housing minor leaguers. Without an option to sleep with hosting families, MLB initially totally abandoned its Minor League players. And that is where Advocates for Minor Leaguers stepped in.

But it has always been hard for these players to find a roof above their head. They were always depending on enough hosting families. If there were not of them, they had to rent an apartment with several players, leading to situations that players were sleeping on an inflatable matrass in the kitchen for example.

Another problem, minor leaguers faced was the fact that landlords were not willing to rent the house shorter than half a year. So if players were promoted or demoted, they were often stuck with a double rent.

But not everything is engraved in stone yet. Per ESPN:

“While MLB has yet to outline its plan formally, six team officials told ESPN they are starting to prepare to help house players across each of their four minor league affiliates. In mid-September, according to sources, owners from the league’s 30 teams agreed unanimously to a plan that would provide housing for minor league players. Whether they will offer stipends that fully cover housing or provide the lodging itself has yet to be decided, sources said. An MLB spokesperson said the league is finalizing the details of the plan….

“This is a historic victory for minor league baseball players,” Harry Marino, the executive director of Advocates of Minor Leaguers and a former minor league player, told ESPN. “When we started talking to players this season about the difficulties they face, finding and paying for in-season housing was at the top of almost every player’s list. As a result, addressing that issue became our top priority.””

The cost of this will be around $1 Million for each MLB team. But since this will cost the greedy MLB owners money, don’t be surprised they will get it back somehow. For example by cutting another level of Minor League Baseball.