BASEBALL MINOR LEAGUES

With a few tweets in early February about the financial plight of minor league baseball players, former Minnesota Twins prospect Todd Van Steensel unknowingly inspired a movement. Twins fan Michael Rivers saw one of Van Steensel’s missives — a casual reminder that minor leaguers don’t get paid a salary during spring training — and reached out to ask if he could send him a little money. Van Steensel, a 29-year-old pitcher who spent last season in independent ball, graciously accepted.

The small gesture felt good, so after Van Steensel mentioned there were other players in the Twins’ farm system in similar need, Rivers launched a Twitter account called “Adopt a Minor Leaguer.” His mission: Finding other baseball fans who were interested in helping players at the game’s developmental levels make ends meet. It turned out there were a lot of people like himself.

“I’ve always been a baseball fan, but I was kind of naive to what minor leaguers really go through,” said Rivers, a 39-yearold father of two who works as a server at a Perkins restaurant in Minnesota. “The fact that they don’t make anything during spring training, it was eye-opening.”

Minor leaguers were due to make $290 per week and $502 per week at the lowest and highest levels, respectively, this year.

With the season suspended indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic, MLB teams initially agreed to pay minor leaguers not on 40-man rosters $400 per week through the end of May. Every club has since promised to continue paying stipends to their minor leaguers at least through June.

To further lighten their financial load, Rivers has paired nearly 450 minor league players from all 30 Major League Baseball organizations with fan sponsors, who commit to spending roughly $100-$150 a month on care packages, gift cards or other types of monetary support. When a player reaches out to say he’s interested in being sponsored, Rivers serves as the matchmaker.

His list of willing fan sponsors, some of whom ask to be paired with a player from their favorite team’s system, currently outnumbers his list of players looking for help.

“We introduce the player and the sponsor, but the beauty is the one-on-one relationship that they develop,” Rivers said.

This good thing’s not too good to be true

Oakland Athletics infield prospect Cobie Fletcher-Vance was skeptical when one of his former University of Alabama teammates mentioned the program during spring training. The arrangement sounded too good to be true.

“I just couldn’t believe that there were people that actually wanted to donate and understood what we go through when it comes to getting paid,” said Fletcher-Vance, who is riding out the pandemic back home in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and was matched with a fan in Northern California. “He was like, ‘Dude, just trust me.’ It’s been awesome ever since.”

Boston Red Sox fan Ellen Daniels messaged Rivers in March after hearing about the program on the “No Crying in Baseball” podcast. A high school ESL teacher, Daniels offered to be assigned to a Spanish-speaking player who might otherwise have trouble communicating with his sponsor. A few days later, she was chatting via WhatsApp with Eris Filpo, a 22-year-old pitcher in the Texas Rangers’ organization who started 10 games at the Class A level last season.

Since returning to his home in the Dominican Republic after spring training was suspended on March 12, Filpo, who heard about Rivers’ program from a teammate, Andriu Marin, has been waking up at 6 a.m. to throw and work out with his brother. He supplements his weekly stipend from the Rangers and the money Daniels has wired him by picking limes. Daniels recently helped Filpo submit an application for a grant from More Than Baseball, another nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of minor leaguers.

“I feel like we’ve really established a fun relationship,” Daniels said. “The other day he texted me saying he was sorry he hadn’t texted me in a few days because he was off in the countryside where there’s no internet.

He didn’t want me to think that he’d forgotten about me.

(May 31) was Mother’s Day in the Dominican Republic and he sent me a ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ message.”

Daniels and Filpo talk or text several times a week, sometimes about baseball, but also their personal lives. According to Filpo, Daniels was the second person he told, after his mother, that his girlfriend was pregnant with twins.

“It’s beautiful because Ellen is my madrina,” Filpo said, using the Spanish word for godmother, which is how he refers to Daniels. “We have good communication and I trust her.”

Tighter bonds than they expected

A love of baseball and a desire to give back inspired 28-yearold Nick Schlatter of Newton, Iowa, to add his name to Rivers’ list of sponsors.

“It’s a way to feel closer to the baseball community, while also helping out anyone that I can,” Schlatter said. “That’s always a good thing. If there’s something that I can do in my life to help better the life of someone else, it’s something I strive to do.”

Schlatter was paired with Chicago Cubs catching prospect Caleb Knight, who finished his college career at the University of Virginia. Before spring training was suspended, Schlatter sent Knight a care package including Gatorade powder mix, protein bars, beef jerky and a letter.

“All the sponsorship stuff aside, it’s been huge just to have someone else to talk to,” said Knight, who has missed the camaraderie of the clubhouse and interacting with fans while living with his parents in Checotah, Oklahoma. “He’s an awesome person. The biggest thing I’ve gotten from him is the new friendship. We talk weekly, always checking in on each other, giving each other words of affirmation.”

Fletcher-Vance, the A’s prospect, has had a similar experience with his sponsor.

“We’ve actually formed a friendship,” he said. “There’s genuine care. She reaches out and asks how I’m doing, and it’s not like a one-way street.”

Word is out, and major leaguers help too

With Perkins closed except for takeout and delivery since mid-March, Rivers has poured most of his energy over the past three months into spreading awareness about his program.

After his original “Adopt a Minor Leaguer” Twitter account, which was approaching 4,000 followers, was deleted due to an administrative error, he received a welcome boost from Washington Nationals closer Sean Doolittle, who tweeted about the program after announcing that he and his teammates would make up for the $100 decrease in the weekly stipend the Nationals would pay their minor leaguers beginning in June. (The Nationals later reversed course, restoring the $400 stipend.) “I had no idea that he knew anything about what we were doing,” Rivers said of Doolittle.

“Thanks to Sean, we picked up 300 followers in one day and we’re picking up steam again.”

While minor leaguers will receive a modest bump in salary next year, Rivers has no plans of slowing down, as long as there are players in search of a little help and fan sponsors willing to lend a hand.

“It’s a really great way to make a difference, and, if you love baseball, to stay super involved and to pay back a little bit,” said Daniels. “It’s created much more of an awareness on my part about what minor league players are going through, especially Hispanic players from other countries.”

Schlatter plans to remain a sponsor for as long as he can be of assistance.

“I’m in it for the long run,” he said. “(Knight) is a friend, he’s a brother to me, so if there’s anything he needs me to help him out with, I’m right here for him. If there’s a point in his career when he’s more financially stable or doesn’t necessarily need anything from me, I’d be more than happy to pick up another player.”