Dodgers reimburse minor league players for spring training clubhouse dues

The Dodgers have reimbursed minor league gamers who have been improperly requested to pay clubhouse dues throughout spring coaching, in line with normal supervisor Brandon Gomes, after a participant advocacy group highlighted the problem in a report final week.

“Their having to pay dues was a message that received misplaced alongside the best way,” Gomes stated. “That was not the intention of something we have been attempting to do. We take a large amount of pleasure in caring for and ensuring our minor leaguers are in place. In order that was one thing that was not intentional.”

The state of affairs got here to gentle Thursday when a bunch known as Advocates for Minor Leaguers reported on Twitter that indicators had been posted within the minor league spring coaching clubhouses of the Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Washington Nationals and Minnesota Twins saying gamers have been required to pay clubhouse dues.

Clubhouse dues for gamers, which typically are used to tip clubhouse attendants and purchase different provides across the locker room, have been eradicated for minor leaguers by a directive from Main League Baseball in November 2020. The apply was banned on the main league stage in 2017, as a part of the league’s earlier collective bargaining settlement.

Gomes stated final week’s report — which included a photograph of an indication asking Dodgers minor leaguers to pay $40 — was the primary time the crew’s entrance workplace was conscious dues have been being collected of their minor league clubhouse. The Dodgers took down their signal the following day and reimbursed their gamers by Sunday.

“As quickly as we caught wind, it was, ‘Hey, let’s deal with this the straight away,” stated Gomes, who’s in his first season as normal supervisor and beforehand oversaw the Dodgers farm system as director of participant improvement in 2018.

Though minor league gamers aren’t paid throughout spring coaching, Gomes famous the Dodgers offered housing and three meals a day to their gamers whereas they educated in Arizona.

Advocates for Minor Leaguers was fashioned in 2020 to advertise higher working situations for minor league gamers, who are usually not represented by a union.

The group’s government director, Harry Marino, issued a press release Monday in regards to the Dodgers’ reimbursement of gamers.

“We’re happy that the Dodgers moved rapidly to reimburse gamers who have been charged clubhouse dues this Spring Coaching,” Marino stated. “Minor Leaguers make poverty-level wages and haven’t acquired a paycheck since final September; they shouldn’t be required to pay the salaries of different crew workers beneath any circumstances.

“This incident additional illustrates that every one skilled baseball gamers ought to have a seat on the desk to debate their working situations. Till that day comes, our group will proceed to carry MLB groups publicly accountable for his or her therapy of Minor Leaguers, as we have now promised.”

Dodgers minor leaguers have been leaving Arizona in latest days to report back to their associates for the start of their seasons. The Dodgers’ triple A affiliate, the Oklahoma Metropolis Dodgers, opens its season Tuesday. The membership’s different three minor league outfits — the double A Tulsa Drillers, excessive A Nice Lakes Loons and low A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes — open their seasons Friday.