Sanders urges MLB not to cut minor league baseball clubs

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday wrote to Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred to argue against an MLB proposal to shutter 42 minor league teams.

“Shutting down 25 percent of Minor League Baseball teams, as you have proposed, would be an absolute disaster for baseball fans, workers and communities throughout the country,” Sanders wrote to Manfred. “Not only would your extreme proposal destroy thousands of jobs and devastate local economies, it would be terrible for baseball.”

{mosads}In the letter, Sanders notes MLB owners pay minor league players as low as $1,160 a month, or less than the $7.25 minimum wage, even though 20 of the wealthiest team owners are worth more than $50 billion combined, and the average major league franchise is worth nearly $1.8 billion.

Sanders also calls for the federal government to reconsider MLB’s antitrust exemption over the proposed dissolutions.

“If this is the type of attitude that Major League Baseball and its owners have, then I think it’s time for Congress and the executive branch to seriously rethink and reconsider all of the benefits it has bestowed to the league including, but not limited to, its anti-trust exemption,” Sanders wrote.

.@MLB is proposing to cut 42 Minor League Baseball clubs.

This has nothing to do with what’s good for baseball and everything to do with greed.

It would destroy thousands of jobs and devastate local economies.

I’m urging @MLB Commissioner Manfred to stop this proposal. pic.twitter.com/89AZduYrlT

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 25, 2019

Sanders previously spoke out against the proposal after Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle tweeted that the proposal was “really sad and I hope it doesn’t happen.” The Burlington-based Vermont Lake Monsters would be among the teams affected by the plan.