Blue Jays raise minor league salary

Where the “Save America’s Pastime Act” was designed to keep the salaries of Minor Leaguers low after a thorough lobby by MLB, the Toronto Blue Jays have chosen to go another way. Instead of keeping the salaries of their minor leaguers low, the club has decided to raise them.

According to sources, the club will raise the salaries of their minor leaguers by 50%. If there is room to raise salaries with 50% it can only mean the players have been vastly underpaid.

Minor leaguers aren’t subject to MLB’s CBA, they’re not union members until they make the 40-man roster, so there is no-one but former minor leaguers (that did not make it to the bigs) who are fighting for them.

Does it come as a surprise that a Canadian club is taking this first step? Not really. In Canada, more people favor fair pay. Blue Jays vice president of baseball operations Ben Cherington said on Saturday: “My hope is it doesn’t stay that way. My hope is other teams eventually do the same.”

But since MLB has done everything to keep MiLB salaries low over the past few years, it is not expected that the governing baseball body will spur the other MLB franchises to follow the example set by the Blue Jays. It is up to the other clubs if the Blue Jays’ decision will become a trend.

A common point made by those who are against higher pay for minor leaguers is that they are taking a chance to become one of the best players of a game. If they succeed, they will earn more than enough money to make up for their minor league struggles. If they don’t, too bad, they can get a regular job like the rest of us. But what about those who never make the bigs? What about those who remain career minor leaguers? Do they really need to be destined to depend on financial support by family members? They have big problems to make ends meet. Is that what you want?  Sure they take a chance to chase their dream, but again, most of them will never make it to the bigs and may spend 10-15 years in the minors. Do they really have to live in poverty during that stretch?

But back to the salary raise. After a 40 percent raise, a first-year Triple-A player will make roughly $3,050 per month or $15,250 for a five-month season. In Double-A, players will get a 50 percent boost to about $2,550 per month or $12,750 per season. Single-A players receive a 56 percent raise to just less than $2,400 per month or a shade below $12,000 per season. It should be stressed that these figures are rough estimates, extrapolated by adding the Jays’ percentage increases to the minimum minor-league salaries set by Major League Baseball.

If this initiative will be followed by other MLB clubs? I dare to doubt it. Otherwise, MLB would not have been lobbying in Congress to sign the “Save America’s Pastime Act.”