San Diego Padres: Francisco Mejia dropping lawsuit continues pay problems
The dropping of a lawsuit by one San Diego Padres top prospect brings again to the surface the major issue that MLB has with minor league pay
Today, San Diego Padres prospect Francisco Mejia announced that he was dropping his lawsuit against Big League Advance (BLA). Not only did he drop the lawsuit, he spoke highly of the organization as he dropped his suit, but the face that BLA even needs to exist is a huge issue with the current minor league pay model.
Many see first round draft pick signing bonuses or the signing bonuses of the top Latin American signings. Those 7-figure bonuses leave the average fan assuming that minor league players are all living off of their millions of dollars sitting in the bank, so when discussions of minor league pay come up, public support is difficult to drum up.
However, just a look at the most recent draft gives a good example of why this thinking is flawed. Less than 60 picks in, the first sub-7-figure bonus appeared, and pick 133 was the first bonus under 6 figures, quickly followed by the first bonus under 5 figures at pick #138.
With an average of 8 minor league teams per organization and at least 25-30 players per level, that works out to 6,000-7,000 players in the minor leagues. While there are 15 players on the 40-man roster at any given time that are presumably in the minor leagues due to 25-man active roster limits, that means that at least 5,500 players are paid based on minor league wage scale, which works out to much less than minimum wage.
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With the significant minority having a bonus of even six figures when they signed, the vast majority of minor league players are living off the wages they’re paid in the game, which is nowhere near enough to scrape by, let alone to send anything back home for Latin players whose families have let a possible wage earner leave the family to pursue a dream of playing a game for money. Enter an organization like BLA.
I won’t get into whether or not BLA is predatory because, frankly, the system MLB has put into place has left this need for its players widespread and an easy target for companies that are MUCH worse than BLA. For a loan of a reported $360K, BLA received 10% of Mejia’s future career earnings with the San Diego Padres. As a top prospect in all of the game, it would seem that the company should make that investment back on the first arbitration contract of Mejia, let alone his first free agent deal.
This deal is a risk on BLA’s part as well, but nowhere near the possible payoff that they’d get from even a bench player. For instance, a backup catcher like Jeff Mathis, who has never had even 350 plate appearances in a season but has played 14 years as a backup player, has career earnings over $15 million, giving BLA a cut of over $1.5 million based on a $360,000 loan. That’s just on a backup player as well – granted one with an extended career in that role.
The San Diego Padres have chosen to keep Francisco Mejia in the minor leagues to open September, but many believe he will compete for a major league job in the 2019 season, and once he does, his pay will begin filling BLA’s coffers. Yet no one will seem to associate this issue with the continued problems with minor league pay.