The Padres on Tuesday said they will continue to pay minor league players their spring training per diems _ about $160 a week _ relieving some concerns that ran rampant when the Padres sent them home over the weekend as the coronavirus pandemic shut down spring training.
The pay is expected to continue through April 8, which would have been the end of their spring training. Major League Baseball, according to a Padres spokesperson, is still working on a compensation plan for what would have been the start of the minor league season April 9.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and New York Mets, according to Baseball America, have also outlined plans to compensate minor league players who generally do not receive pay until the season is underway.
They do, however, receive room and board while in spring training, two meals a day at the team's complex and a weekly per diem to cover a meal a day away from team facilities. Those perks were seemingly yanked away when teams scrambled to send their minor league players home _ with the exception of rehabbers _ as the pandemic approached a tipping point.
Spring training was canceled. The minor league season, like the big league season, was pushed off to an unknown date, leaving thousands of minor leaguers in limbo.
Most work offseason jobs and secure temporary housing in the winter _ whether they stay with family and friends or find short-term leases _ in preparation for the season. Upon their assignment to an affiliate, they often stay with host families or split apartment rent with teammates.
Their pay can be as little as $1,160 per month at Single-A teams, with incremental raises as they climb levels in the system.
Before the Padres' plan to continue to pay their spring training per diems, the most vulnerable of minor leaguers _ those who signed for a few thousand dollars and not millions as many top draft picks do _ were left to wonder how to make up those earnings while staying ready for the start of the season, whenever that is.
Finding employment when it was clear that players may have to quit at any moment to resume a truncated spring training was another complication.
