Seager at Spring Training with the Seattle Mariners in 2014.
Justin Seager was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 12th round of the 2013 MLB Draft from UNC Charlotte. He is the younger brother of MLB All-Star, Kyle Seager, and the older brother of MVP candidate, Corey Seager. Justin played five seasons in the MiLB totaling 350 games played. He was very open to sharing stories about his Minor League experience with the MLM Team. His firsthand encounters with harsh living conditions and low wages were very intriguing.
"When I played in Bakersfield, CA in the California League, I rented a 3 bedroom apartment with 6 other guys (7 including me). I used to jam my car full of things and ship it out to wherever I was playing. That would usually wipe out about a month worth of paychecks, but I needed a car and would save some money on not having to rent or buy some furniture. I had a futon mattress (without the frame), a fan, some pots and pans, and some other things. So I would have my futon mattress right on the ground and my fan in my room and that was pretty much it. We had 2 guys sleep on air mattresses in the master, 2 in the living room, 1 guy had his own room, and then in my room, it was just me, except my buddy put an air mattress in my closet! His air mattress was the perfect size for the closet, and it was actually nice because he could close the door and still have a little more privacy.
The only other furniture that we had was our TV in the living room. We would all pitch in and get a really nice tv from Walmart, but the key was that Walmart had a 90 day return policy, so we would set a reminder on our calendar to return the tv before then to get our money back. And then we would do it all over again with a different guy’s credit card. That was our only luxury in our apartment, and luckily, we always got our money back."
- Justin Seager