Yankees: New York Releasing Minor Leaguers is a Horrible Look

The New York Yankees are releasing a number of minor leaguers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fans are truly seeing the ugly side of baseball in 2020. From cutting costs to labor disputes, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided obstacle after obstacle en route to a dead end with zero solutions.

But what we do know is that minor leaguers are horribly underpaid, which makes it even worse that teams across the league are releasing players or halting their pay altogether. Unfortunately for Yankee fans, New York is doing the former, as it’s been reported the team plans to release 45 minor leaguers.

Was told the total number of Yankees minor leaguers being released is about 45. The 45 are spread across all levels of the system. The Yankees have some 375 players total in their system. Team will continue paying remaining minor leaguers $400 per wk through at least June
— Erik Boland (@eboland11) June 1, 2020

For starters, these cuts largely aren’t a surprise considering a number of players would have been shown the door in the weeks leading up to the start of the regular season at the end of March, but does a $5 billion franchise really need to cut costs at the lowest possible level? These guys make $400 a week, which ends up being around $600,000 in total costs per month for the ENTIRE farm system. That can’t be spared over the coming months while the MLB and MLBPA work out a deal to resume the season?

It’s especially bad when you see New York reporters’ opinions on the matter aging like milk.

I doubt the Yankees will be needlessly cutting minor leaguers to save money. There is a trend how the two clubs operate.
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) May 29, 2020

That was three days ago.

Perhaps the players on the MLB roster will take note in regards to what the Washington Nationals just did. The World Series champs cut 30 players and instituted a 25% pay cut for the remaining minor leaguers. As a result, the millionaires at the big league level knew what a loss that was for someone in the farm system and they pledged to pay the difference for all that was lost. Shortly after, team owner Ted Lerner — who is worth over $4 billion, by the way — reversed the pay cut due to the backlash and likely awful PR that would stem from his players paying what he can without even recognizing a loss.

and Gerrit Cole can really stick it to management here, don’t ya think?

The New York Yankees are releasing a number of minor leaguers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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