The Show
July 3, 2005. It was a rainy Sunday morning as my daughter and I drove to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on our weeklong baseball trip for an afternoon game between the Kernels and the Lansing Lugnuts. We arrived for the game much too early. The gates to the ballpark wouldn’t open for another 90 minutes. As we sat in the parking lot and waited it out, we noticed a Kernels player in the car parked next to us munching down a McDonald’s hamburger for lunch. He then reclined his front seat and settled into a pre-game nap. Soon, the sun came out and the front gate to the ballpark looked to be opening. All three of us bounced out of the cars. The Kernels player, a little embarrassed, ran to the Cedar Rapids clubhouse; he apparently had overslept and was now late. When my daughter and I entered the main gate, she was chosen to be one of the nine kids to go on the field with a Kernels player before the start of the game. She was very excited.
Over this first weekend of MLB play, there were a handful of players, “rookies”, who shared that same excitement of stepping onto a baseball diamond. In the words of Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) in the baseball movie, “Bull Durham”, the MLB rookies had finally made it to “The Show”. Many of this year’s rookies we saw play in last year’s shortened season. To be eligible for NL and AL Rookie of the Year honors, a position player needs to have fewer than 130 at bats and a pitcher fewer than 50 innings the prior year. There are some familiar “rookies” from the playoffs last year – Tampa’s outfielder Randy Arozerena (ALCS MVP); Atlanta pitcher Ian Anderson (0.96 ERA in four postseason starts); and Miami righthander Sixto Sanchez (5 shutout innings in a playoff win over the Cubs). Others debuted in 2020 as future stars on some struggling clubs – Detroit hurler Casey Mize; Texas pitcher Dane Dunning; and Pittsburgh third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. Other rookies to watch include Reds’ second baseman Jonathan India, who actually did make his MLB debut this past Thursday, and White Sox slugger Yermin Mercedes, a 28-year old rookie who toiled in the minor leagues for 10 years.
All of these rookies have something in common, an MLB big league contract (lowest big league salary is now $570,500 per season) after years of playing in the minor leagues. “The Show” for them means no more long bus rides, bad meals, and thrifty hotels. And maybe, just maybe, one of them might even catch the 2019 rookie debut lightning of San Diego star shortstop, Fernando Tatis, Jr. I’m sure they certainly hope so. In just two years of MLB play, one shortened by injury and the other by the pandemic, Tatis had shown the Padres enough to land an incredible, 14-year $340 million contract extension this offseason. After Francisco Lindor’s recent signing with the Mets for $341 million, the Tatis contract is the fourth largest in MLB history in terms of total money committed to a player.
Fernando Tatis, Jr.’s father, Fernando Tatis, starred as an MLB player in a fourteen year career. Senior is most famous for hitting two grand slams in one inning in a 1999 game for the St. Louis Cardinals. Like his father, Tatis, Jr. signed as a baseball free agent out of the Dominican Republic as a 17-year old. He showed enough potential for the Padres to acquire him in a 2016 trade with the White Sox for veteran pitcher James Shields. Tatis Jr. struggled in his 2016 minor league rookie season. He played shortstop for the Arizona Padres of the Rookie League and the Tri-City Dust Devils of low Class A ball, and had a poor, combined .904 fielding percentage. Tatis Jr.’s power at the plate, defensive flash, and speed became apparent in his next two minor league seasons. In 2017 and 2018, he moved through the Padres system, playing for the Class A Fort Wayne Tin Caps and the Class AA San Antonio Missions of the Texas League. In the offseasons, he starred in the winter Dominican League. Ranked by the MLB Pipeline as the #3 prospect in baseball, it was just a matter of time before he would be called up to “The Show”.
On March 26, 2019, the Padres issued a release announcing that Tatis Jr. had made the San Diego Opening Day roster. Indeed, Tatis Jr. made his MLB debut as the Padres starting shortstop, and had two hits in his first game. This past Thursday some new “rookies” got their first Opening Day start as well. Pirates’ Ke’Bryan Hayes homered in the first inning against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Reds’ Jonathan India stroked two hits against the Cardinals in Cincinnati, and amazingly Yermin Mercedes of the White Sox began the season with an 8 for 8, record-setting batting streak. Tatis Jr.’s 2019 year was solid. He batted .317 with 22 home runs, and came in third in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting. In 2020, he was spectacular, hitting 17 HRs (second in the NL), 42 RBIs (fourth), and 11 stolen bases (also fourth). Tatis Jr. led the Padres to a 2020 playoff spot and a first round win over St. Louis. Many commentators project the Padres to return to the NL playoffs this year and see Tatis Jr. as the potential NL MVP.
One fascinating part of the Tatis $340 million monster contract is that he has to give part of it to a company called “Big League Advance” (BLA), an investment firm that rewards young, promising players with early payments in exchange for a piece of all of their future MLB earnings. Advance payments give minor leaguers, like Tatis Jr., the ability to withstand the rigors and inequities of minor league ball for a chance to play in The Show. You see, BLA invested in Tatis’ success when he was just an 18-year old minor leaguer. For Tatis’ new contract, it is believed that BLA will receive an estimated 25 to 30 million dollars over the course of his contract, a pretty nice return on their original payment to Tatis of about $500,000. BLA has made similar deals with over 300 minor leaguers during the last five years, and 20 such arrangements have already been inked in the first three months of 2021. It’s the ultimate win-win in professional sports.
The Big League Advance investment fund is the brainstorm of former Philadelphia pitcher Michael Schwimer, a reliever for the Phillies in just 37 games during the 2011 and 2012 seasons. His firm has invested heavily in predictive analytics software programs. An algorithm projects the performance and earnings potential of minor league players. Tatis Jr. was part of BLA’s first $26 million fund that was spread across 77 players in 2017. A second fund raised an additional $130 million. If a minor leaguer accepts $100,000 upfront for his future earnings, BLA’s possible payday is 1% of those earnings. On the high end, a player could get an $1,000,000 payment for 10% of future earnings. While the per player arrangements are not public, apparently the average deals are for 8% of earnings. Schwimer has said that the average paid to a player is $350,000.
From a player’s perspective, the upfront payment is incredibly appealing. For example, when Tatis took the deal in 2017, the pay for Class A players was only $1,300 a month, and that was for play during the season. In an interview with The Athletic in 2018, Tatis said the BLA deal gave him the ability to afford a personal trainer, more quality food, and better housing. These deals also come at a time when the MLB is reducing its minor league affiliations, and hence the opportunities to play professional baseball. MLB announced in December that it is only offering 120 minor league affiliations (down from 163) to cities across the U.S., four per team (Class AAA, Class AA, high Class A, and low Class A). Gone are the rookie leagues where so many players got their start. And from a personal perspective, cities and teams like the Burlington Bees and Clinton LumberKings, both part of fond memories of my prior baseball swings, are no longer minor league destinations.
Last season Dodgers pitcher David Price gave $1,000 each to the 220 minor leaguers in the Dodgers system when he learned that the minor league season might be cancelled due to the pandemic. That goodwill gesture reminded me of how important minor league baseball has been to players and fans, much like my daughter and I on our trip in 2005. After she returned to our seats that Sunday afternoon in Cedar Rapids prior to the first pitch of the game, she handed me the baseball that a player had autographed for her. The ball bore the signature of the same player who was parked next to us a couple hours before in the ballpark parking lot. My daughter and I cheered when he smacked two hits that afternoon in the Kernels 5-4 win over the Lugnuts. Years later, I checked, and he never made it to The Show.
Until next Monday,
your Baseball Bench Coach