The Mets continued their nonsensical offseason announcing that minor league players will not be allowed to use the newly renovated clubhouses in Port St. Lucie.
The New York Mets have had one of the more head-scratching offseasons in recent memory, hiring two different managers, seeing a potential sale of the team fall-through, and now they’ve advertised that they want minor league players to “earn” access to their best facilities.
The Mets recently renovated their facilities in Port St. Lucie, where they make their home for spring training and which also doubles as the home park of the club’s high-A minor league team, the St. Lucie Mets.
But even though the minor league players will spend half their season at Clover Park once the big leagers leave town, they are not allowed access to the swanky new main clubhouse.
According to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, the Mets are doing this “to give minor leaguers a reminder of the status they’re working to earn.”
Just, wow. A $57 million investment, $55 million of which was paid by taxpayers, to only be used for roughly six weeks and then sparingly by rehabbing Mets on the 26-man roster. Now, the Mets did update the minor-league clubhouse as well, but it’s just a disrespectful move by the Mets to their own prospects.
This is just another example of MLB not doing enough to help minor league baseball players. On top of not being paid a liveable wage or even at all during Spring Training, now they aren’t even allowed to use a team clubhouse because they haven’t “earned it”? What are the Mets going to use this clubhouse for during the regular season?
Some former and current players from the Mets system voiced how absurd the policy is.
While Bernie Sanders and congress are up in arms about commissioner Rob Manfred and his proposed plan to shut down 25 percent of all minor league teams, it’s clear there’s an issue that needs to be resolved with the way MLB and its owners treat their minor leagers.
The Mets aren’t the only team operating like this, they’re just the team that can’t seem to get out of their own way. There are plenty of teams that could be doing more to help minor league players, however, until MLB owners decide to put people’s livelihood ahead of stuffing more money in their pockets things won’t change.