Minor leaguers petition Major League Baseball for back pay

The non-profit group Advocates for Minor Leaguers announced Thursday that over 1,000 Minor League baseball players petitioned Major League Baseball for Spring Training back pay.

A cause that has been building for years, the petition comes after a federal judge ruled back in mid-March that minor leaguers were considered year-round employees who work during training time. The ruling also found Major League Baseball violated Arizona state minimum wage law and is liable for triple damages.

The heart of the matter is that the minor leaguers feel they should be paid for the time they’ve put in over February and March leading up to their season.

Advocates for Minor Leaguers posted screenshots less than two weeks ago of payments players received as their first paychecks since October.

Started mostly by former players that spent significant time working under the conditions they fight against, the group has grown over the past two years in it’s fight against MLB owners. They even have George Knox — I mean, Danny Glover as a board member.

It was seen as a victory back in November when MLB said they would require teams to provide housing for minor leaguers not on the 40-man roster. But even that was met with resistance from advocacy groups.

Major League Baseball hasn’t commented on the petition to this point.

Links

• Justin Turner will have options in baseball whenever he decides to hang up the cleats, writes Bill Plunkett of the OC Register.
• Jay Jaffe wrote about Cody Bellinger and turning the page on 2021 recently for Fangraphs.