Sources says, familiar with the agreement that minor league baseball players and Major League Baseball players reached a tentative agreement on Wednesday regarding the first collective bargaining agreement that will more than double player pay and represent the largest-ever gains in minor leaguers’ rights.
The five-year agreement is the result of minor league players’ swift and fruitful attempt to unionize last year under the umbrella of the Major League Baseball Players Association and previous advancements in pay and housing. When the union was formed, MLB gave it official recognition. This set the stage for a negotiation that ended with a deal just before major league Opening Day.
A judge approved a $185 million settlement that the league will pay players who accused it of violating minimum wage laws on the same day that the parties agreed on a deal that went out to a vote among the union’s rank-and-file and will need to be approved by owners as well before it is formalized. This comes after years of disillusionment among future major leaguers regarding paltry salaries that force them to work offseason jobs. The agreement could be officially announced as early as Friday, the first day of minor league play.
According to sources, the pay increases at each level are significant and will cover players’ compensation for the majority of the offseason and spring training, including back pay for this season. The pay structure will have annual minimum salaries that range from:
Triple-A: Double-A: $17,500 to $35,800 High-A: $13,800 to $30,250 Single-A: $11,000 to $27,300 ranging from $11,000 to $26,200 Complex league: $4,800 to $19,800
Players at teams’ complexes in the Dominican Republic are not included in the deal. The small time unit of the MLBPA remembers just players for groups’ homegrown lists – – and players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and other unfamiliar nations will in any case receive the rewards when stateside.
Starting in 2024, the Domestic Reserve List, which controls how many players a team can roster outside of its Dominican Republic complexes, will be reduced from 180 to 165 under the terms of the agreement. During MLB’s lockout the year before, the union had opposed efforts to reduce the reserve list, which teams had identified as a priority.
Players, in the interim, stressed better lodging and transportation as an issue of import. Players at Triple-A and Double-A will get their own bedroom starting in 2024, and players with spouses and children will get special accommodations. Teams will provide transportation to stadiums in rookie, Single-A, and High-A baseball, where players will consume meals in accordance with guidelines negotiated by a joint clubhouse nutrition committee.
Social media posts from players started the overhaul of the minor leagues in earnest. In these posts, players showed off their meager paychecks and frequently packed a half-dozen players into apartments with one or two bedrooms and slept on air mattresses. MLB was completing its takeover of Minor League Baseball as players began to organize. It reduced the number of affiliated teams from 162 to 120 as a result. The agreement says that MLB can’t sign teams in the next five years, even though it was already unlikely because the Professional Development League grants 10-year licenses to all minor league teams signed before the 2021 season.
MLB offered housing in 2022 and slightly increased pay in 2021 since it took over minor league management. Players continued to demand more, and the advances in the agreement between the parties codify a wide range of policies that were not previously part of minor league life, including:
Pay from January 2 until the Friday before Thanksgiving. From the next day through Jan. 1, players will not receive pay. There will also be slight annual pay increases in 2025, 2026 and 2027
A six-year reserve, instead of seven years, for future players who enter affiliated baseball at 19 or older. The shorter reserve period allows players — most of whom will have played in college — to reach minor league free agency earlier
Full name/image/likeness rights, which previously had been controlled by the league. By receiving them, the union can leverage group licensing deals
Expanded medical rights, including, under some circumstances, the right to a second opinion on an injury as well as an expanded time period for post-injury medical expenses to be covered
Joint drug and domestic-violence policies, to be patterned after the agreed-upon policies previously negotiated by the league and union
A no-strike, no-lockout provision under the terms of the deal, which will run until after the 2027 season
In addition to the class-action case, pressure from Capitol Hill narrowed the focus on MLB and certainly hastened the changes. Advocates for Minor Leaguers, a group started by former minor league pitcher Harry Marino, had pushed Congress to force MLB to offer the same protections for minor league players as major leaguers. The Senate Judiciary Committee pressed MLB in a June 2022 letter about its antitrust exemption, and less than a month later, the league settled the antitrust suit, which also had been litigated by another former minor league pitcher, Garrett Broshuis, who had been at the forefront of early organizing.
Marino joined a unit that minor leaguers voted to form as part of the MLBPA by the middle of September. In negotiations with MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem, Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort, and others with the league, he was joined by union general counsel Ian Penny and MLBPA executive director Tony Clark, who was the lead negotiator on the major league contract that was finalized in March 2022.
As baseball enters a crucial period during which it will introduce a suite of new rules, including a pitch clock, the agreement stabilizes the entire affiliated landscape for at least the next four years. Minor leaguers from all over the sport expressed their gratitude, and Broshuis celebrated what many regarded as a significant victory with a series of tweets that concluded:
“For those who passed a hat around for diaper money for newborns.
“For those who grinded away at 2 or even 3 off-season jobs.
“For those who skipped breakfast or even lunch to pinch pennies.
“For those who have [given] up the game not for a lack of talent but for a lack of funds.
“This is for you.”