NEW YORK (AP) — An advocacy group for minor league players has praised locked-out big leaguers for refusing to consider a proposal from Major League Baseball that would give teams the flexibility to cut 900 minor league jobs.
MLB proposed that the Major League Baseball Players Association agree that management has the flexibility to decrease the number of domestic players with minor league contracts to 150 if it chooses to starting in 2023, down from 180. MLB also asked for the flexibility to increase the figure.
The union said during ongoing bargaining it is not interested in that proposal, part of a larger package of 28 items, and that it has rejected it at least three times.
“We were glad to learn that the MLBPA has repeatedly rejected MLB’s short-sighted proposal to cut yet more minor league jobs,” Advocates for Minor Leaguers said in a statement Tuesday. “The proposal itself again highlights that minor leaguers need and deserve a say over their wages and working conditions.”
Players with major league contracts are unionized, covering those on 40-man big league rosters. Players with minor league contracts are not covered by collective bargaining.
The proposal was first reported by ESPN.
After successfully lobbying Congress to exempt minor leaguers from federal minimum wage laws, MLB raised wages between 38% and 72% when the minor leagues returned last year from a one-season absence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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