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(Photo by Brian Westerholt/Four Seam Images)

While being a minor league baseball player on a standard salary remains a career that is not massively lucrative, it does pay dramatically better than it did just a few years ago.

MiLB players formed a union in 2022 and then negotiated their first-ever MiLB collective bargaining agreement with Major League Baseball for the 2023-2027 seasons. With that, players are now paid nearly year-round, they receive housing and other benefits and their pay is automatically bumped up every year.

For 2026, the standard pay scale for MiLB players ranges from $710 to $1,250 per week, depending on which level a player is assigned to play. Across the board, players are getting paid $400-$700 per week more than they were in 2019. They are now paid for all but roughly six weeks of the year, compared to previously only being paid in-season when assigned to an MiLB club.

Weekly Salaries201920212026Rookie-level$290$400$710Low-A$290$500$885High-A$290$500$935Double-A$350$600$1,040Triple-A$502$700$1,250Spring training$0$0$660Offseason camp$0$0$660*Offseason at home$0$0$260*Players are not paid during the December-January “dead period” when they cannot be contacted by their organizations

How Do MiLB Salaries Work?

As late as 2019, rookie ball and Class A players earned just $290 a week, and they were not guaranteed to be paid for spring training, extended spring training or offseason workouts. A player could make under $4,000 total a year and be paid for as little as 16 weeks out of the year.

Nowadays, most MiLB players playing in the U.S. make between $18,000 and $44,000 per year, although salaries for the limited number of players who have reached MiLB free agency or are MLB veterans now playing in the minors can be much higher than that. A player on the MLB 40-man roster assigned to the minors will make a minimum of $63,600 in-season, which is more than double the salary for a Triple-A player on an MiLB contract.

For minor league players who have yet to make a 40-man roster or reach MiLB free agency, the maximum a player can make in a season is roughly $44,000 to $45,000. 

Very few players will make that much, however, as it requires maxing out almost every possible opportunity. That’s a $30,000 salary for a full season in Triple-A, another $2,640 for spring training ($660 per week), plus $10,560 ($660 per week) for spending the entire offseason training period as a player invited to report for offseason training and/or rehabilitation. For the vast majority of players, they will split time between receiving $660 per week for offseason on-site training and $260 for time training at home. That amount would also include a $750 stipend for participating in the Futures Game.

In addition, a Triple-A player would receive another $2,340 for per diem ($32.50 per day) for every day on the road during the season. A player assigned to the Arizona Fall League could earn $1,040 (the Double-A standard salary) for those six weeks, as well, although that would replace their offseason on-site or off-site pay.

The minimum a player under contract all season playing in the U.S. could make is a little over $18,000. That’s an $11,360 rookie ball salary for the season plus extended spring training, $2,640 for spring training and $4,160 for offseason off-site training. A player in rookie ball will not receive per diem because all games will be home games or day trips.

MiLB Player Housing & Food Benefits

In addition to the salary, players also now receive a significant amount of additional perks. Rent-free furnished housing is provided during spring training, during the season and during offseason-required club facility training or rehabilitation. Most players will have housing covered for 6-9 months a year. 

During the MiLB regular season, teams must provide housing in apartments or homes. Hotels and host families are not permitted, and housing must be within a commuting distance of the ballpark. an exception is made for extended-stay hotels with kitchens in areas where no apartments or homes are feasible. In those cases, players cannot be required to check out for road trips, and the extended-stay hotels must be approved by the MiLBPA.

In Class A and below, players may be required to share a bedroom with another player, at a maximum of two beds per bedroom. All standard utilities, including Internet, are to be paid for by the MLB club.

Players with a spouse are guaranteed a private bedroom, although it could be in an apartment with a shared kitchen/living space. Players with children are guaranteed either a private dwelling with at least two bedrooms or a housing stipend paid to the player that is equal to the average monthly rent paid by the club to a player without a spouse or children assigned to the same club.

During spring training, teams must provide hotel/dormitory-style accommodations for players with no more than two players per room.

Teams are also required to provide two “nutritious, high-quality meals” (as specified in the CBA) for players whenever they are required to report to a club facility, whether that be during spring training, the regular season or for offseason training and rehabilitation work. Clubs must also provide nutritious snacks in the clubhouse.

How Do MiLB Contracts Work?

Until a minor league player reaches MiLB free agency, every player has a uniform player contract. While a player with seven years of MiLB service (or six for players who are 19 or older on June 5 of the year they signed their first contract) can negotiate their salary and other perks, players who have not reached that service time (whether draftees, international signees, undrafted free agents or players signed from independent or partner leagues) are subject to the Uniform Player Contract (UPC). Players in the Dominican Summer League who have not come to the U.S. yet are not subject to the UPC until they do so.

The vast majority of minor league players are still under their “First-Year Contract,” which includes the team control limit of six or seven years. While players can negotiate their signing bonus/scholarship at the time that they sign their initial contract, there are no yearly negotiations. The contracts are set at fixed rates as negotiated between MLB and the MiLB Players Association.

MiLB free agents have limitations to their contracts if they sign a minor league contract. Those players’ maximum salary is $8,400 per week, which works out to $201,500 over a full Triple-A season. They are also limited to signing bonuses of $100,000 or less and no more than three out clauses in their contract that obligate the club to release the player if he is not added to the MLB roster by a certain date. Also, unlike MLB free agent contracts, minor league free agent contracts are limited to one or two seasons. There is no such thing as a three-year MiLB free agent contract.