Last week, Major League Baseball announced a league-wide initiative so minor-league players could be compensated during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Before MLB made the announcement, however, the Pirates were working on supporting their minor-leaguers during the hiatus, according to team president Travis Williams.
“It was important to us that we were supporting them, as well as others, in a time of need,” Williams told me Saturday during the club's event with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
The team was underway on a similar program to provide relief to PNC Park employees before MLB reached out to coordinate a league-wide effort, which was also announced last week. Each team pledged $1 million to be paid to their stadium workers.
The Pirates worked and are continuing to work with MLB on a minor-league compensation program.
Across baseball, most minor-league players were sent home shortly after spring training was suspended on Mar. 12, not knowing when they would need to return to their teams.
The Pirates kept some of their prospects in Bradenton depending on a number of factors, like if they were rehabbing from injury or if it would be too risky to fly into a certain city.
Minor-league players are not paid during spring training, but they are provided housing and provided a $25 per diem.
Under MLB's plan, each minor-leaguer will be paid $400 a week through the end of spring training. MLB has not said how players will be compensated starting Apr. 9, the originally scheduled start of the regular season, though a plan is being developed.
“I think it’s a start,” Pirates prospect Stephen Alemais told me shortly after MLB announced the initiative. “It’s going to guys move around and get situated.”
The Pirates new leadership has talked at great lengths about establishing a player-centered culture in Pittsburgh. For that to happen, that culture would also need to extend to their affiliate clubs.
“When they’re out of a job, it’s not different if an employee at the ballpark is out of a job," Wililams said. "[They need] to be able to feed their families.”
