“Most Minor League baseball players work second jobs because their annual salaries are insufficient to make ends meet” - Advocates for Minor Leaguers respond to MLB commissioner's controversial comments

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is taking some heat after a series of controversial comments about minor league players' salaries today.

Manfred suggested that the minor leaguers were paid a fair salary. Here are the commissioner's controversial comments that sparked headlines this afternoon.

"Rob Manfred on minor league player salaries: 'I reject the premise that they are not paid even a living wage.'"- Bill Shaikin

This led to a response from the Advocates for Minor Leaguers.

"Most Minor League baseball players work second jobs because their annual salaries are insufficient to make ends meet. The commissioner makes an annual salary of $17.5 million. His suggestion that Minor League pay is acceptable is both callous and false." - Advocates for Minor Leaguers

This comes after a $185 million class-action lawsuit settlement was announced. The lawsuit claimed that Major League Baseball violated minimum wage laws and overtime regulations for Minor League Baseball players.

"BREAKING: Major League Baseball will pay $185 million to settle the federal class-action lawsuit filed by minor league players who sought for minimum-wage and overtime violations by teams, pending a judge approving settlement, according to a document filed in court today." - Jeff Passan

The battle for fair minor league pay continues as both Major League Baseball and minor league player representatives dispute the issue. It will be interesting to see how Major League Baseball handles this situation.

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Minor Leaguers looking for fair pay from MLB

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred during the 2022 Gatorade All-Star Workout Day

Minor League baseball players have been advocating for a fair wage for many years. With the recent comments made by Commissioner Rob Manfred, there is cause for concern.

Many Minor Leaguers are often not paid enough to make ends meet and often have to take on second jobs. This is an issue that Major League Baseball needs to take action on if they want to continue to grow the game.

The Minor Leaguers won a huge settlement earlier this month that pays thousands of players compensation for violations of minimum wage laws. This is a big step forward, but there is still a lot to be done.

All that the MLB needs to do is to be able to come up with a system that ensures every player in the Minor Leagues is paid well enough to live on. Many players have spoken out about being paid as little as $10,000 a year.

Hopefully, the MLB and Minor League Advocates can sort this mess out soon to potentially save Minor League baseball.

For more news and updates, go to the Sportskeeda Baseball page.