Minor-League Baseball Players’ 1st 2022 Paychecks Reportedly Revealed in Screenshots

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Minor-League baseball players reportedly received their first 2022 paychecks, and the four examples shared by Advocates for Minor Leaguers were all less than $100:

While Major League Baseball was under the spotlight this offseason as the league and the Players Association attempted to come together on a collective bargaining agreement to end the league-initiated lockout, the living conditions of minor leaguers has received more attention of late as well.

Social media has been a major part of that development, and Advocates for Minor Leaguers has highlighted cases of players sleeping in cars and receiving lackluster meals in the recent past.

In July 2021, Alex Shultz of SFGate reported players on the Low-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics ended up paying more to stay in team hotels than they made on their paychecks for homestands with fewer housing options without host families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported Major League Baseball decided it would require teams to provide housing for minor leaguers starting with the 2022 campaign.

“This is a historic victory for minor league baseball players,” Harry Marino, executive director of Advocates of Minor Leaguers, said. “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.”

Evan Drellich and Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic reported in March a federal judge ruled minor leaguers should be considered employees all year with Major League Baseball as a joint employer with teams.

The ruling provided more than $1.8 million in damages for a California claim and set the stage for a June trial for an Arizona claim.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press (h/t ESPN) reported the Major League player union provided $50,000 to ununionized minor leaguers in November 2021.