Rachel Balkovec explains plan to pay minor leaguers incentives for winning

Prior to being hired by the Miami Marlins as their new director of player development, Rachel Balkovec was a minor league manager. She observed how players were focused on individual production first and foremost, doing whatever it took to advance to the next level. The team's success in the standings was a far lower priority and guys weren't motivated to make sacrifices for each other to win that day's game.

During an extensive interview on the Diggin' Deep Podcast (just before the 48-minute mark), co-host Justin Su'a asked Balkovec, "How do you build a culture of camaraderie and teach guys to be good teammates in the minor leagues when the incentives aren't right?"

Her response: "Money! Money!"

"This seems very simple to me: pay minor league players incentives for winning," Balkovec said.

Earlier in the episode, Balkovec praised Marlins manager Skip Schumaker for pushing his big league team to compete and play the game the right way.

"That doesn't happen at the minor league level," Balkovec explained, "because it's not about the team winning."

Despite drawing from a poorly regarded minor league talent pool, Marlins MiLB affiliates have hoisted some trophies in recent years. Double-A Pensacola won the 2022 Southern League championship and Low-A Jupiter earned the Florida State League title last season. And that's without having any sort of cash bonus to chase.

Balkovec would not base all of the incentives around the playoffs—due to the extreme length of the baseball season, players can lose their focus long before that. Perhaps money could be awarded monthly instead, she recommended.

Balkovec described how she coordinated a low-stakes version of this during her two seasons managing the Tampa Tarpons. She divided the position players on her roster into small groups and kept track of the points they earned for positive plays over five-week periods, distributing her unused Nike store credit to the group with the highest point total. 

"There's so much immediate, pure accountability because they want the money."

As outlined in the the first-ever minor league collective bargaining agreement, players receive a minimum salary of $19,800 in rookie league, $26,200 in Low-A, $27,300 in High-A, $30,250 in Double-A and $35,800 in Triple-A. It's less exploitative than it used to be, but still, the vast majority of minor leaguers are either relying on the generosity of friends and family to live comfortably or finding additional work outside of their playing career. Every little bit helps remedy that.

"I really hope to implement [it] as soon as possible," Balkovec said of the incentive system.

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