1 hour ago, CentralChamps21 said:

Just to put this into context, if you make $500/week and have to be at the ballpark for 5 hours a day, 6 days a week, that's $16.67/hour. Minimum wage in some states/cities is $15.

You’re not counting the massive amount of travel time, practice time (fielding, bunting, hitting), extraneous responsibilities like charity events and autograph signings and visiting sick kids in hospitals….they’re there a lot closer to eight to ten hours.  Coaches would stay an hour or two later to fill out reports for the parent affiliates, then there was dealing with the media pre and post game, etc.

1 hour ago, CentralChamps21 said:

Just to put this into context, if you make $500/week and have to be at the ballpark for 5 hours a day, 6 days a week, that's $16.67/hour. Minimum wage in some states/cities is $15.

I think that's oversimplifying it. When I worked in Indy ball with games being at 7, players generally showed up in mid-afternoon, like 2-3 (some earlier, some later of course). They prepare, go to the trainer(s), get their work in, etc., and then have BP/pregame stuff, then the actual game.  They weren't usually leaving until 10-11 post-game. In my personal experience, it's more like an 8 hour day at least. Factor in taxes and that hourly rate gets even grimmer.

I’d wager money that the highest ROI thing a front office could do is make trivial investments in their player development system to improve the quality of living and nutrition for its minor leaguers.  Pretty dumb not to treat these players like the lifeblood of the organization and care for them appropriately.