Is it possible to make less than minimum wage? Did you ever think that a McDonald’s Cashier could earn more than a minor league baseball player? Well for some minor league player’s that is a reality.
According to the Cedar Rapids Kernels play by play radio announcer, Morgan Hawk, most minor leaguers salaries are slim to none.
“The signing bonus for many players is between $20,000 and $30,000 and their [monthly] stipend typically runs between $1,100-$1,200. However, minor leaguers don’t get paid for the month that they report to spring training.”
USA TODAY reports that “Most earn between $3,000 and $7,500 for a five-month season. As a point of comparison, fast food workers typically earn between $15,000 and $18,000 a year, or about two or three times what minor league players make.”
The report goes on to explain how minor leaguers make less than the federal poverty level, which is $11,490 for a single person and $23,550 for a family of four.
Both Hawk and USA TODAY note that some minor leaguers, particularly those with families, must take in another job during the offseason to make enough money for the year.
A part-time job for Cedar Rapids pitcher, Clark Beeker, is a necessity if he wants to live a comfortable life.
“When I go back home to North Carolina during the offseason, I work a few extra jobs to earn some extra money,” he said.
However, money is not an issue for a select few number of players in the minor leagues like Cedar Rapids catcher, Ben Rortvedt, who was taken 56th overall by the Minnesota Twins.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported last year that the Minnesota Twins agreed to a contract with Rortvedt who at the time was just graduating from, Verona High School, located in Wisconsin, worth over $1,141,600, including his $900,000 signing bonus.
Rortvedt forged his commitment to Arkansas University after he was drafted by the Twins, most likely due to the signing bonus that the Twins included.
This was also the case for former Cedar Rapids pitcher Griffin Jax. Jax a graduate from the Air Force Academy signed with the Twins under a $645,600 contract in June of 2016, according to the Star Tribune. The Air Force graduate was picked in the third round, and many believe he would have been drafted even higher if it wasn’t for mandatory military service obligations.
As stated in The Gazette, Jax was told that he could work around his post-graduate, two years of mandatory service in the Air Force while he aspired to reach the major leagues.
However, due to a presidential shift in power over the last year, this deal fell through.
Clark Beeker believes that minor league baseball players must be resilient and have patience in order to have a shot at the majors.
“You have to have a lot of patience in the minors, and I always say that you can only control what you do,” Beeker said.
Cedar Rapids Manager Tommy Watkins, who was a career minor leaguer himself, understands the challenges minor leaguers face.
“When you are on this level you don’t make too much money,” Watkins said.
He believes that travel is another challenge that minor leaguers most endure, especially for the players with wives, and such.
Most minor league players, specifically single A, range between the ages of 18 and 23, according to Hawk so many of them can bond due to the similarity of their ages.
Beeker said that most of the players are quite close since they are all college graduates.
“We’ve got lots of college graduates here so we have a lot of camaraderie,” Beeker said.
Some of the minor leaguers get to experience the major leagues while they are still in the minors.
“Joe Mauer came to Cedar Rapids on a rehab assignment for a week long, which was pretty exciting,” Hawk said.
The minor league’s atmosphere is what drives many fans like Cedar Rapids native, Jean Pfiefei, to the ballpark, every day.
“The part I love most about the minor leagues is the fan interaction, and how you can get so close to the field which is something you can’t do at a major league ballpark,” Pfiefei said.
She also enjoys the minor leagues more than the majors since the ticket prices are significantly less at minor league games.
So although a majority of these minor leagues will never hit the big leagues, much less, ever live in a mansion, they seem to all agree that the minor leagues taught them different life lessons and helped set them up for the real world.