The New York Mets had a $57 million renovation of the Port St. Lucie, Fla., spring training facility completed this offseason. In addition to the stadium renovation, a lot of that money went into updated player amenities like a big-league caliber clubhouse, kitchen and dining room.
The St. Lucie Mets are the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the New York Mets and play their regular season games at that same updated Clover Park facility. The team is comprised of players who will spend the summer grinding out games in the Florida League without getting paid a living wage.
As if that wasn’t already messed up, the New York Mets won’t let the St. Lucie Mets use the spring training clubhouse once the season gets underway.
The most striking part of the Mets' $57 million spring training renovation may be the home clubhouse. The Mets are only using it for Spring Training, not for the St. Lucie regular season, to give minor leaguers a reminder of the status they're working to earn. pic.twitter.com/k1b3vTTkj3
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) February 10, 2020
Mets MLB.com beat writer Anthony DiComo oddly framed it as the Mets wanting to give their Class A players a reminder of what they’re striving for during spring training … only to make them use a decidedly worse clubhouse just down the hall.
For those asking, here's the St. Lucie regular season clubhouse. It's also brand new and quite nice, albeit much smaller than the spring clubhouse. pic.twitter.com/0ULuC6hul1
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) February 10, 2020
The examples of how the MLB system takes advantage of grossly underpaid and under-supported minor leaguers are well documented. But this decision from the Mets epitomizes how needlessly cruel big-league clubs are to the affiliates. The Mets (and mostly St. Lucie County) dropped $57 million into a renovation and revamped clubhouse, and they’ll only allow for the big-league caliber clubhouse to get used for maybe eight weeks. That doesn’t make sense.
There’s no downside in giving a minor-league club a nice clubhouse. It’s not like spacious lockers, nice TVs and some couches are going to tank the farm system. MLB fans appropriately called out the Mets for taunting their minor leaguers with the clubhouse.
Taunting the peasants, i.e. your future mlb players. This kind of thought process… https://t.co/D2SuCVcHnB
— M F (@natsbythepen) February 10, 2020
So they dropped $57 million to taunt minor leaguers but paying said minor leaguers a fair wage is out of the question huh? https://t.co/wkB2w3bunN
— Banging Scheme Developer (@spacemnkymafia) February 10, 2020
Good because I was just thinking about how minor leaguers have it too easy https://t.co/LBEYC3Uiio
— David Gardner (@byDavidGardner) February 10, 2020
So…the county spent $55M (the mets paid $2M, if I remember correctly) which included a clubhouse that will only be used for 6 weeks a year, and not by the full-time minor league squad, who get a secondary new, but worse clubhouse. What a goddamn joke. https://t.co/1iu1qvilnm
— Joshua (@JoshuaHowsam) February 10, 2020
Congratulations @Mets, you're now the worst baseball team in New York. https://t.co/DPTKny0VXQ
— Holmes (@FireUpPool) February 10, 2020
Dang that's cold! https://t.co/vsxLr2PQJr
— Brenden Schaeffer (@bschaeffer12) February 10, 2020
So you have $57 million to spend on a clubhouse that's only getting use one month out of the year, but can't pay your minor leaguers adequate living wages? https://t.co/kCSWEMAIGo
— Connor Morman (@connor_morman) February 10, 2020
This is gross. Build a stunning clubhouse and not even let the local team use it? Pay $54MM to use a room for 6 weeks?
Baseball is terrible, why do I love this stupid game. https://t.co/ZyKKtiDENL
— Ashley MacLennan (@90feetfromhome) February 10, 2020
It is ironic that the organization has talked about wanting to create a unified "Mets way" throughout the organization but would rather let this clubhouse sit dormant for 10 months than let their minor leaguers use it in the summer. https://t.co/mvjs1wTPbR
— Jacob Resnick (@Jacob_Resnick) February 10, 2020
The Mets need to reassess that decision — or the St. Lucie Mets need to find a key — because there’s no justifiable reason for that setup.
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