Mets won’t let their minor-league team use new spring training clubhouse during the season

Not a good look.

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.

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.

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.

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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