Oakland A’s to stop paying minor-league players. Will Texas Rangers follow suit?
Move over, Los Angeles Angels. There’s a new cheapskate atop the MLB heap.
The Oakland A’s took the mantle Tuesday when they told their minor-leaguers they will no longer receive a $400-a-week stipend after this week. The A’s surged past the Angels, who will begin furloughing employees (including amateur scouts ahead of the amateur draft) Monday.
The Texas Rangers will continue to pay their minor-leaguers at $400 a week through June but will evaluate compensation over the final two months of what would be the minor-league season.
Other teams are committed to paying minor-leaguers, though not necessarily at $400 a week.
In April, Rangers designated hitter Shin-Soo Choo gave each Rangers minor-league player $1,000, a gesture that cost the 2018 All-Star around $200,000.
MLB teams are losing money with no games being played during the coronavirus pandemic and no revenue from TV contracts. Owners and the MLB Players Association have entered negotiations on safety and player compensation for a 2020 MLB season.
The union is expected to respond Thursday to the owners’ proposal of a sliding salary scale, which was met with instant opposition from the players. The A’s news followed a few hours later, making it a Tuesday to forget for baseball.
The prevailing thought in the industry is that an agreement must be in place no later than the end of next week if the season is to begin in early July, as the owners proposed two weeks ago.
Oakland also hasn’t been making rent payments on Oakland Coliseum, though, let’s be honest, they probably should have stopped those years ago or at least sought a lower payment each time the toilets backed up.
How ugly is the A’s decision to stop paying minor-leaguers? Like a lack of oral hygiene.
Assume the A’s have around 200 minor-league players, plus or minus a dozen or so. That’s $80,000 a week. There would be 14 weeks remaining in the minor-league season for a price tag of $1,112,000.
A’s owner John Fisher is worth $2.2 billion, according to Forbes.
That’s a bad look.
The Rangers would save between only $720,000-$800,000 if they didn’t pay minor-leaguers over the final two months, assuming they are on the hook for 200 salaries.
