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Atlanta Braves need to lead the way for minor league salary bumps

By Alan Carpenter

CLEVELAND, OHIO - JULY 07: Home plate umpire Jose Navas punches out Taylor Trammell #7 of the National League after he tried to steal home during the fourth inning against the American League team during the All-Stars Futures Game at Progressive Field on July 07, 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio. The American and National League teams tied 2-2. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OHIO - JULY 07: Home plate umpire Jose Navas punches out Taylor Trammell #7 of the National League after he tried to steal home during the fourth inning against the American League team during the All-Stars Futures Game at Progressive Field on July 07, 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio. The American and National League teams tied 2-2. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /
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Atlanta Braves
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 24: Pedro Florimon #50 of the Atlanta Braves rounds the bases after a solo home run in the fifth inning of a Grapefruit League spring training game against the Houston Astros at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches on February 24, 2019 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Astros won 5-2. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

The momentum is building, but so far there is still resistance at the major league level to paying minor league players enough to keep them in the sport.

Minor League pay is an issue receiving a lot of press lately, but even as MLB continues to drag its collective feet on the subject, the team that should be out in front of this the most is… the Atlanta Braves.

That notion will be explained further in a bit, but the impetus of this rant comes from an article posted in TheAthletic yesterday (subscription required) by Evan Drellich, who covers the ‘Business of Baseball’ for that site.

Drellich was following up on comments made by Rob Manfred, baseball’s commissioner, on the subject of minor league pay.

While I was looking for things to quote in TheAthletic from this piece, I was struck at exactly how much of political double-speak Manfred was saying.

Here’s an entire quoted paragraph to illustrate the point:

"“Where it really is right now is just trying to get a feel for what the issues are going to be and how to best set them up to tackle them,” Manfred said. “I think that everybody understands that we have to look at the efficiency of the system that we’re running right now, how many teams, how many players, what we’re paying players, and all those issues are obviously related. I think we’re prepared to grapple with it, and I think they are as well.”"

Did he actually say anything useful in there?

Back in March, Emily Waldon wrote about the plight of minor leaguers – noting that many can’t afford to continue playing the game and that there’s an uneasy hush about this taboo topic… fear that talking about pay will get you released.

Message to MLB:  That’s a horrible way to do business and an even worse way to treat the same people you expect to be helping field teams to get your stars to the major leagues.

Let’s face it – 90% of all minor league players will never sniff the majors – they are present to make games available to help the ‘true prospects’ get better.

Yet for all of that effort, these guys are being treated to sub-minimum wages.

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