Advocates for Minor Leaguers sends letter to Congress asking for same protections extended to MLB players

The executive director of Advocates for Minor Leaguers blasted Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leadership, calling on Congress to give minor leaguers the same protections already extended to major leaguers.

Harry Marino, whose group has fought for higher salaries and expanded rights for the more than 5000 minor league players, offered pointed responses to the committee's inquiry into the minor league.

Marino wrote that the law that allows MLB teams to avoid paying minor league players minimum wage or overtime should be expanded. Minor league players can negotiate the length and terms of their initial Minor League contracts with their Major League teams, knowing that at the end of those initial contracts they will be free to sign with the Major League team.

Marino said that the competition would help drive wages and working conditions and bring players out of poverty.

Triple-A players make a minimum of $700 a week, double-A players $600, single-A players $500 and complex-league players $400. Six teams don't pay players who are in extended spring training camps. Signing bonuses range from $1,000 to $8 million for the top pick in the draft.

The Judiciary's inquiry into the minor leagues began with a June 28 letter signed by leadership from both parties. Despite efforts to overturn it, the antitrust exemption granted to MLB in 1922 is still in place.

The exemption gives MLB protection from federal antitrust laws that fight anticompetitive practices, and gives the league the ability to influence franchise relocation and draw the lines of a territorial-rights map that allows teams to black out television broadcasts. Major League Baseball's control of the minor leagues is one of the benefits of the exemption.

In 2020, the league contracted 42 of its affiliates from the minor league system, and Marino fears that MLB will shrink the minor league system again.

Marino wrote that it is only a matter of time until the MLB owners inform them that they intend to take a wrecking ball to our national game once more. There is a chance of another round of Minor League contraction. The owners have made it clear to people who are paying attention.

While Marino answered questions about international players, he wrote that the Major League Baseball owners lied about the reason for the law.

Baseball players and fans across the nation have been devastated by the Minor League Conspiracy.