Middlebrooks at the 2018 Boston Red Sox World Series Ring Ceremony, with his 2013 World Series ring.
Links to Will Middlebrooks Interview Clips:
This Is Pro Ball?
Heaven For Baseball Players
Some Guys Signed For a Plane Ticket
Off Season Jobs
Will Middlebrooks was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the fifth round of the 2007 MLB Draft out of Liberty Eylau High School in Texarkana, TX and signed for $925,000. Middlebrooks played six MLB seasons and spent parts of ten seasons in the Minor Leagues. Will, his CBS co-worker, Danny Vietti, and Will's wife, Jenny, sat down with us for a conversation about MiLB experiences over Zoom. The Red Sox took a chance on Middlebrooks in 2007 and it certainly paid off as he was an integral part to the greatest team of all time, the 2013 World Champion Boston Red Sox. Will was fortunate to have a signing bonus that he used as insurance as he lived the frugal MiLB lifestyle. However, some of his teammates had a much more difficult time in the MiLB and never panned out as predicted by the scouts. He shared some great points and interesting stories regarding this cause that's so important to us all.
"We were making maybe $10,000 per year. I invested my entire signing bonus ($925,000) and lived that low-wage Minor League lifestyle. I was one of the lucky ones to get a good signing bonus. There were some guys that signed for a plane ticket, like $1,000.
Six of us were all living together in a two bedroom apartment. There were definitely guys trying to bring extra food from the field to eat some extra meals at home. Down at the field, we were lucky if there were peanut and jelly sandwiches.
Some guys came from big college programs with catering and thought, “this is pro ball?” They were treated like royalty on campus and the MiLB was a wake-up call for them.
There is no players’ union for Minor League Baseball, so there’s no protection. In the Bigs, the MLBPA protects the players through free agency and contract negotiations. In the Minor Leagues, you don’t have that.
It’s really cool because it’s just you and your boys. You don’t complain in the midst of it. It’s like college baseball without going to school. You just play baseball and chill with your boys.
Once you get into the Big Leagues, they pay you a much higher minimum salary if you get demoted out of courtesy, but a lot of guys aren’t so lucky and never make it. The owners are going to save money as much as they can with Minor Leaguers.
As long as the MiLB teams spit out three players a year that help them win games, that’s all that matters.
Front office executives will say, “We aren’t paying you that much because you are getting an opportunity to make millions of dollars.” As some of my teammates got older and had kids in the Minors, they left in the middle of the season because they could go to Wal-Mart and make more money. If they are gone for eight months of the year, their wife with the newborn is probably not working, or if she is, they would have to hire a babysitter and all of the costs just get too high.
“I know there’s something better.” Once you get higher up in the MiLB levels and start playing with some guys that have made it, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so that pushes you too. You’re blind to a lot of this when you are playing. You are blind to how mistreated you are because you are focused on making the Big Leagues.
Daniel Nava was a filler player, or guys who are only professionals because they need to provide a competitive environment for the top prospects. They were probably going to release him but he hit .360 every year and they thought, "We are going to look like idiots if we let this guy go."
I invested my entire signing bonus, so I lived that cheap lifestyle. In the offseason, luckily I had a family that could help support me, but I didn't have anyone to support but myself. Once you start to have children with your wife, that’s when it gets tougher financially.
Over half of the guys have offseason jobs. Honestly, working out, doing baseball activity, and getting better is an off-season job as well, so they’re working double. I gave lessons. When I was back home in Texas, I gave lessons to some of the kids that my dad had ties to as a high school baseball coach. I would give like ten a day for gas money. There was a hitting facility where I would hit, kids would come in, I’d give them lessons, and I’d hit some more. It was a pretty good setup for me. I didn’t have it too rough, but I knew plenty of guys that did.
The biggest thing that you get in the Minor Leagues is health benefits. You are covered. Major League benefits are obviously much better, but in the MiLB, those benefits are still better than the everyday person’s. You are taken care of on that side of things, but they spend more money on benefits, which you may never even use, than they do your salary.
They also just cut down on MiLB players and affiliates (about half of the entire MiLB was wiped out). That’s a serious problem for these Minor League towns where the team was a major source of jobs.
We made the playoffs in 2009 in Greenville, SC. There was a northern division and a southern division. We were the furthest south team and had to play the furthest north team in Lakewood, NJ. We had to take a bus ride from SC to NJ for one game, play it, take the bus back, and play again.
I loved it. There were times when I was going through it when I thought, “This is the grind.” But, I miss it. I would go back and do it again. Some of my best friends that I still talk to today are from the Minor Leagues. Some of my fondest baseball memories are from the Minor Leagues. My situation worked out. I was in the best situation possible in the Red Sox organization, where they spend money on nutrition and wanted to take care of their guys a little more.
If Youkilis didn’t get hurt at the end of April 2012 and I wasn’t on a tear at that time, I don’t get called up to the Big Leagues then. So many things have to go right for you to get to the Big Leagues and even more things have to go right for you to stay."
- Will Middlebrooks