Fontanez representing Puerto Rico in the 2013 World Baseball Classic at AT&T Park in San Francisco, CA.
Randy Fontanez was drafted by the New York Mets in the 27th round of the 2011 MLB Draft from the University of South Florida. Prior to his MLB career and college years at USF, Fontanez played for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the Cape Cod Baseball League, the highest caliber collegiate baseball summer league in the United States. Fontanez played parts of five seasons in the MiLB with the Mets and Dodgers. He made it all the way to the AAA level in 2015 with the Oklahoma City Dodgers. Randy shared his experiences that describe the difficulty that is living on a Minor League Baseball salary, while clarifying that playing in the winter gave him the opportunity to work year-round for a bit more money, albeit still for a rather low wage.
"I made enough to live barely comfortably. The goal was to sleep long enough that we wouldn’t have to eat breakfast and just get to pregame. Depending on where I was playing, half of my check went to rent, another third went to expenses such as gas, food, etc. Winter ball was a blessing that allowed me to actually not be completely broke.
Minor Leaguers are definitely under valued/appreciated. If everyone got a huge signing bonus I wouldn’t bat an eye, but with the vast amount of players not receiving one, it is the definition of the grind.
I am fortunate again that winter ball allowed me and my roommates to never have a scary moment wondering how we were going to make it. Again, we lived very carefully to try and sleep until pregame and live below our means as much as possible, including sleeping on air mattresses for 4 guys in a 2 bedroom apartment. In the higher levels such as AAA, the veteran Big League guys always took care of us."
- Randy Fontanez