Orioles Minor Leaguers Speak Out Against Housing Situation, Some May Sleep in Cars

Some members of the Bowie Baysox are contemplating sleeping in their cars because of low wages, according to the Twitter account Advocates for Minor Leaguers. 

The account explained how staying at the team hotel would swallow up a vast majority of the money apportioned to the players.

The Baysox are the Baltimore Orioles' Double-A affiliate.

Issues regarding the working conditions for minor leaguers isn't a recent concern, though it has come under more recent scrutiny after MLB rolled out its plan for affiliated leagues in February.

A number of minor league organizations across the country were culled, and MLB said at the time the process would lead to tangible benefits for players such as higher wages and better facilities. The league had also agreed to raise the minimum salary for minor leaguers beginning in 2021.

However, Tuesday's report comes a little more than two weeks after Advocates for Minor Leaguers brought attention to the post-game meals distributed to players within the Oakland Athletics organization.

"Several weeks ago, we were made aware of the postgame meals being served to players in our Minor League system," the A's said in a statement. "Those options were completely unacceptable and by no means meet our quality standards. We immediately ended our relationship with that third party vendor."

Advocates for Minor Leaguers has highlighted other cases of poor working conditions for minor league players:

After President Donald Trump signed the Save America's Pastime Act into law in 2018, minor leaguers were exempted from federal minimum wage laws. The Arizona Capitol Times' Ben Giles reported in January 2019 that MLB was lobbying toward the same cause at the state level in Arizona.

The current collective bargaining agreement is due to expire on Dec. 2, and conversations between MLB and the MLB Players Association could prove contentious.

Perhaps this will be among the issues brought forward by the players as they lay out their requests at the negotiating table.