FLORENCE, Ky. — Multimillion dollar contracts signed by the top baseball, football and basketball players could make even the average person’s jaw drop. But life is not as glamorous as one might assume for many professional athletes who haven’t quite reached the highest level.
In fact, some struggle to get by, despite dedicating their lives to the sports they play.
What You Need To Know
- While Major League Baseball players earn millions of dollars, many minor league and independent league players struggle to get by
- One Florence Y’alls player said he stays with a host family, and has had to share overcrowded apartments in the past
- His goal is to make it to the big leagues to play at the highest level, and subsequently earn a lot more
- The Y’alls general manager said many Frontier League players have the goal of moving up to higher leagues
Alberti Chavez makes a living, even if it’s not a great one, trying to find home. He’s pretty good at it, too.
He found home plate a few times, scoring multiple runs, as did many of his teammates on the Florence Y’alls, when they blew out the Empire State Greys 21 to 4 in a late July game in their home stadium.
Chavez has also found a home in Florence, even if it ends up being just for this year, and even if it’s technically someone else’s home he’s living in.
“I think I have the best host family in the league,” Chavez said. “I love it. I feel very comfortable here. I think I’m gonna come back next year, too.”
Despite an up and down season, the Y’alls were riding a fiery streak at the time this story was written, having won eight of 12 games, thanks in large part to Chavez.
“I think we got the best team in the league,” he said. “This sport is not how you start. It’s how you finish. I think we’re gonna finish the season really, really good. I think we’re going to be in the playoffs.”
Chavez started playing baseball in the United States in 2013 when he was just 18-years-old, leaving the comfort of home in Venezuela. He spent nine years in the Cincinnati Reds system, making it as far as AAA, but never up to a major league roster.
“I really appreciate the Reds giving me the opportunity to play in this beautiful sport,” Chavez said.
Now with the Y’alls, Chavez was an all-star this season. He’s one of the team’s best players, both at the bat and defensively at shortstop.
“It’s not too different, to be honest. It’s pro,” he said.
Despite his success in the Frontier League, Chavez earns a fraction of a fraction of even the average Major League Baseball salary, which is $4.41 million a year in 2022 according to the Associated Press. The sport’s highest paid player, New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer, will earn more than $43 million for the 2022 season alone.
Things are a lot different in the Frontier League, an independent baseball league not affiliated with the MLB, in which the Y’alls play.
“A lot of people think we play pro, we do amazing, we make a lot of money. But it’s not true,” Chavez said. “If you want to make more money, right now it’s not a big salary here. But I just focus on playing baseball and trying to get signed back to whatever team in the big league.”
Most Frontier League players earn between $1,000 and $2,000 a month during the summer, according to an official with the Y’alls. For the 2020 season, teams had a salary cap of $85,000 with a salary maximum of $1,600 a month for most players. Teams’ highest paid players could earn up to $4,000 a month.
As Chavez said, he lives with a host family, which is common among players and something he had to do even when playing in the minor leagues.
“Sometimes we had to rent an apartment with like six people in one apartment with two rooms. It’s a little bit hard. Sometimes we had to sleep on the air mattress,” he said.
Y’alls General Manager Max Johnson handles travel and lodging for players when they’re away and also helps work with host families.
“They’re staying with local families who have an extra bedroom, who love going above and beyond, and being a part of the team, and supporting these guys day in and day out,” he said.
Partnering restaurants also help feed players. In the Frontier League, home teams cover the cost of hotels for opposing teams coming into town.
Johnson said, while fans love the team, most players have their sights set on trying to reach the next level.
“It’s definitely different worlds, but that’s what these guys are fighting to get to. They want that contract, too. We’re just here to be that gateway to the next level,” Johnson said.
Some players spend years in lower leagues hoping to move up just to feed their families. Chavez is 27 and hasn’t yet started a family of his own. That makes it easier, he said, to stay focused on his goal of making it to the big leagues.
Chavez said he wants to play ball at the highest level, and the contract would surely help, too.
“I come in here in between the lines, play hard, try to win the game, and do the best I can to try and get signed again. That’s the reason why I’m here,” he said.
Simon Rosenblum-Larson, relief pitcher for a minor-league affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, wrote an op-ed on poor pay for minor league players in April titled “I’m a minor-league pitcher. Why can’t baseball pay a living wage?”
Rosenblum-Larson said annual salaries for minor-league baseball players range between $4,800 and $14,000 in AAA.
“After my first game as a professional ballplayer, I went home to a cot squeezed into a 10-by-12-foot room that I shared with a teammate in a house set up by our team. A few weeks later, I received my first check, for two weeks of work: $550, before taxes and clubhouse dues,” Rosenblum-Larson wrote.
A petition by the organization More than Baseball, which Rosenblum-Larson is the director of, calls for a minimum salary of $35,000 per year.