The week didn’t start on the right foot for MLB fans.
After learning the details of the latest owners’ offer to players (another disappointing proposal), it was reported on Tuesday that the league is looking to gain the ability to control the size of the minor league’s Domestic Reserve List.
The Domestic Reserve List, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan, is the one that “governs the number of minor league players a team can roster at any time.”
The list is currently at 180, but MLB could lower the number to around 150, potentially eliminating hundreds of minor league playing jobs.
This comes in the middle of an ugly negotiation between MLB and the Players Association to write the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
The Owners Are Doing Things Out Of Sheer Greed
The league and the union are fighting about minimum salary, among lots of other things.
One can understand why they don’t want to dramatically increase the minimum salary at the major league level.
But the way MLB is trying to undermine the minor leagues, cut jobs, and limit their earnings is incredibly disappointing.
There is no other explanation than to think they are doing it out of greed.
As former major league player Dallas Braden explained, the cost for MLB to pay out a full minor league system per year is $2,547,600.
This is ROUGHLY what it costs an MLB team to pay out a full minor league system of players making minimum salary.
(Dominican summer league rosters have 35 players making 3,000$ a season. That’s an extra 105,000$) pic.twitter.com/Uz5qfBfrhX
— Dallas Braden (@DALLASBRADEN209) February 15, 2022
That’s about five times an MLB minimum salary, or a bit less.
It means that the league can pay an entire team’s minor league system with less than five MLB minimum salaries, and they are still looking for ways to cut hundreds of jobs.
They already eliminated 42 minor league teams in late 2020.
The league clearly doesn’t care that these players have families and dreams.
It just worsens the league’s image for fans.
NEXT: MLB World Reacts To Shocking Minor League Rumors