Sources: Hundreds cut in minors; more expected

Hundreds of minor league baseball players were cut Thursday and hundreds more are expected to lose their jobs as the sport grapples with the near certainty that the minor league season will be canceled, sources told ESPN.

Team officials said a vast majority of the players likely would have been released toward the end of spring training even if baseball hadn’t been halted by the coronavirus pandemic, according to sources. But the cuts en masse, which could wind up numbering more than 1,000, nevertheless reverberated around the game, sources said. Released players expressed fear that their careers would be over, and those whose teams hadn’t yet made cuts prepared for a tenuous next few days, sources said.

In recent weeks, owners of minor league teams have begun laying off front-office and gameday workers and citing the cancellation of the season as the reason, according to sources. Minor League Baseball has not officially canceled its season, according to a spokesperson, though the suspension of the Professional Baseball Agreement that governs its relationship with Major League Baseball precludes big league organizations from providing players to its minor league affiliates.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he would inform Minor League Baseball if and when it planned to allow players to join affiliated teams. He has yet to do so. Even with no players available, teams acting as if the season is over and one team renting out its stadium on Airbnb, Minor League Baseball president Pat O’Conner has yet to speak publicly and acknowledge the foregone conclusion in 2020, and the fallout from it.

O’Conner declined to comment when reached by ESPN.

For more than a year, MLB has planned to contract about a quarter of minor league teams before the 2021 season. Compounding that with a drastically shortened amateur draft — just five rounds this year instead of the typical 40 — and the delay of international free-agent signings until as late as Jan. 15, minor league systems could be as thin as they have been in years.

Farm directors, front-office officials and agents said that further player cuts — more related to the elimination of affiliates and leagues in 2021 — could be expected in the future. Some of the veteran players released could compete for jobs on the anticipated 20-man taxi squad every major league team will field if a season begins, but the younger players cut Thursday, sources said, might have more difficulty finding jobs in baseball.

All teams agreed to pay minor league players $400 a week in April and May to cover for wages lost during canceled games. The $400 salary was given by MLB regardless of what the players were slated to make, including to hundreds of players who had been contracted to make several times that amount. For some players, that meant a pay cut of more than 80%.

Early this week, the Oakland A’s told their minor league players they would no longer receive the stipend starting in June, drawing significant criticism. Eight teams have said they will pay minor league players through at least June, with the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners pledging through the end of August, around when the minor league season normally ends.