How Much Does Minor League Baseball Players Make?

How much does minor league baseball players make? This is a question that often comes up for fans of the sport. While the answer may vary depending on the player’s experience and skill level, there is typically a range that minor league baseball players fall into.

Keep reading to learn more about how much minor league baseball players make, and what factors can affect their salaries.

MLB Draft

The MLB draft is how Major League Baseball (MLB) teams select amateur baseball players to sign professional contracts. The draft order is determined by the previous season’s standings, with the worst team receiving the first pick. The process is repeated until all 30 teams have selected a player. The first round of the draft is often considered the most important, as the players selected in this round have the best chance of making it to the Major Leagues.

Types of Players Selected

Players who are selected in the MLB draft fall into one of three categories:
-College players
-High school players
-International players

College players are the most common type of player selected in the MLB draft. In fact, over 60% of all draft picks are college players. These players have typically played four years of college baseball and are considered to be more polished and ready to play professional baseball than high school or international players.

High school players make up a little over 30% of all MLB draft picks. These players have the potential to be the best major leaguers someday, but they also come with a higher risk because they are less experienced than college players.

International players make up the final 7% or so of MLB draft picks. These players are typically from countries like Cuba, Japan, or South Korea where baseball is very popular. Many international players sign professional contracts with MLB teams before they are eligible for the draft.

Bonuses

Players who are picked in the first 10 rounds of the MLB draft usually receive signing bonuses. The slot value is the recommended bonus for each pick in each round by Major League Baseball. For example, the slot value for the No. 1 overall pick in 2019 is $8,415,300, while the slot value for the 30th pick (No. 920 overall) is just $132,700. Of course, some players will get more than their slot value (usually because they’re considered top prospects), while others will get less (usually because they have leverage, like being able to go to college).

MiLB Salaries

Minor league baseball players make an average salary of $7,500 per season, according to a report from the married couple website The Balance. This figure is based on the players who were on a team’s active roster as of August 31, 2018. The average salary has increased over the years as more players have signed Major League Baseball (MLB) contracts.

Minimum Salary

All MiLB players fall under the minimum salary of $290 per week for the 2021 season, which is an increase from the $290 per week they made in 2020. The minimum salary for a player on a 40-man roster is also $46,000. These figures are based on a 172-game season.

Maximum Salary

All Minor League Baseball players are paid according to the regulations of the Major League Baseball rulebook. The maximum salary for a player in Class A is $2,150 per month. The maximum salary for a player in Class A-Advanced is $2,600 per month. The maximum salary for a player in Double-A is $2,850 per month. In Triple-A, the maximum salary is $3,300 per month. Players on a 40-man Major League roster must receive a minimum of $34,000 annually, regardless of whether or not they are on the active 25-man roster.

Salary by League

In order to be eligible for a spot on a Major League Baseball (MLB) team’s 40-man roster, players must first play in the minor leagues. There are six different levels of minor league baseball, with each level representing an increasing level of experience and pay.

The lowest level of minor league baseball is Class A, which is further broken down into two subcategories: Class A-Advanced and Class A. Players in Class A baseball earn $290 per week for the entire season, which runs from April through September. Players in Class A-Advanced baseball earn $400 per week.

The next level up is Double-A, where players earn $500 per week. Triple-A is the highest level of minor league baseball, and players at this level earn $2,150 per month during the season.

There are also three additional levels of minor league baseball: Rookie ball, Short-Season A ball, and Low-A ball. These leagues exist primarily to allow organizations to evaluate young talent. Players in these leagues generally do not receive Donald Trump Minor League Salaries.

Rookie ball is the lowest level of professional baseball, Short Season A ball is slightly higher, while Low A ball is considered to be at the same level as full season Single A baseball.

MiLB Service Time

Types of Service Time

There are two types of service time in Minor League Baseball: years of service (YOS) and accrued seasons (AS).

YOS is the total number of years a player has been under contract with any Major League or Minor League baseball team. AS is the total number of Minor League seasons a player has completed, regardless of whether he was on a team’s 40-man roster or not.

A player accrues a season of service time for every year he is on an active 25-man roster, disabled list, bereavement list, paternity leave list or military leave list for at least 86 days. However, days spent on the Major League inactive list do not count towards a player’s service time.

A player’s AS can exceed his YOS if he spends time in the Minor Leagues on optional assignment or is outrighted to the Minors after being on the 40-man roster.

Impact on Salary

Service time in Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is the amount of time a player spends on a team’s active roster before being eligible for free agency. A player with more than three years of service time is considered a “Super Two” and is eligible for salary arbitration, while a player with less than three years of service time is not.

Impact on Salary

The larger impact of service time on salaries comes from its role in the arbitration process. Players who have accrued more than three years of service time but less than six years are eligible for salary arbitration. In arbitration, each side—the team and the player—submits a proposed salary for the upcoming season to a panel of arbitrators, who then choose one of the two figures. The panel’s decision is binding.

In recent years, players and their agents have become more aggressive in pursuing higher salaries in arbitration. In many cases, teams have been forced to give significant raises to players who were not yet eligible for free agency. For example, in 2017, third baseman Kris Bryant was awarded a salary of $10.85 million in arbitration, more than doubling his previous year’s salary of $1.05 million.

MiLB Free Agency

If a player has accrued at least three years of service time and has not been previously outrighted off of a 40-man roster, then he becomes a free agent eligible to sign with any team. Players with less than three years of service time can be released by their team without restriction and become free agents. If a player is on the 40-man roster and is not eligible for free agency, he can be outrighted to the minor leagues by his team.

Types of Free Agents

There are three types of free agents in Minor League Baseball: Type A, Type B, and Type C.

Type A free agents are players who have been outrighted off of 40-man rosters at least three times. These players can declare free agency after the baseball season ends.

Type B free agents are players who have been outrighted off of 40-man rosters twice. These players can declare free agency after the baseball season ends.

Type C free agents are players who have been outrighted off of 40-man rosters once. These players can declare free agency after the baseball season ends.

Salary Negotiations

salary negotiations for minor league baseball players is a bit different than it is for major league baseball players. In general, minor league baseball players are not free to sign with any team they choose. Instead, they are “drafted” by a major league team and then assigned to a minor league affiliate.

The exception to this is if a player has been released by a major league team or if he has elected to become a free agent. Once a player becomes a free agent, he can sign with any team, including a major league team. However, most minor league free agents end up signing with the same organization they were with previously.

Players who are not on the 40-man roster are not eligible for salary arbitration and therefore do not have much power when it comes to negotiating their salaries. Major League Baseball sets minimum salaries for each level of the minors, so players don’t have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to their salaries.

The minimum salary for a player in Triple-A is $2,150 per month, while the minimum salary for a player in Double-A is $1,700 per month. The minimum salary for a player in Single-A is $1,100 per month. These amounts are slightly higher for players who have been in the minors for more than three years.

Players do have some leverage when it comes to negotiating their salaries, however. If a team wants to offer a player less than the minimum salary, the player can refuse to sign and become a free agent. The player can also threaten to retire if he is not offered a contract that meets his demands.

MiLB player Development Contracts

Players in the Minor Leagues are paid according to a fixed-scale system called the Minor League Baseball player Development Contract, or MiLB-DC. The MiLB-DC has been in place since the early 1990s, and it is the collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball. The MiLB-DC dictates that players will be paid a set amount based on their level in the Minor Leagues, with small cost-of-living increases each year.

Signing Bonus

Most players that are drafted in the MLB draft or signed as international free agents will receive a signing bonus. These signing bonuses can range anywhere from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars. The amount of the signing bonus depends on many factors such as where the player is drafted, their skill level, and their negotiating power.

The majority of players that are drafted in the first 10 rounds of the MLB draft will receive a signing bonus of at least $100,000. For players drafted in rounds 11-40, the average signing bonus is around $5,000-$10,000. Players that are signed as international free agents will also receive a signing bonus, but the amount is typically much lower than players drafted in the MLB draft. International free agents will typically receive a signing bonus of $10,000-$20,000.

Salary

Although minor league baseball players do not receive the same high salaries as their major league counterparts, they do receive a salary while they are playing. The average salary for a minor league baseball player was $6,000 in 2017, according to Bleacher Report. However, this number varies depending on the level of play. For example, players in Rookie ball make $290 per week, while players in Triple-A make $2,150 per week.