The Weekly Rant: MLB, Outsourcing, and the Indy Leagues as Temp Agencies

Among the many trends in baseball's long history, perhaps none is lamented so much as the disappearance of independent minor leagues. By the middle of the last century, all of the nation's minor league's became either subservient to major league teams, or defunct.

By the mid-1990s, unaffiliated leagues began to reemerge. While many clubs and leagues have sprung up one season, only to fold the next, several leagues have found a bit of stability as the "Indy Ball" renaissance enters its third decade.  It would be a stretch to say that independent baseball is thriving, but it is certainly existing. Total attendance for independent baseball topped 7 MM last season and at one point, 32 former Indy Ball Players were on 40 man rosters.  It's undeniable that Indy Ball is having an impact on the baseball world.

The most successful leagues have been able to carve out a niche as a sort of caste system has developed outside of organized ball. Atlantic League teams often carry multiple former major league players and many other high-minor veterans. While the league has entered the mainstream baseball discussion for its publicity stunts (i.e. Roger Clemens), over 600 former Atlantic League players have been signed by MLB organizations.  It is widely-believed that the Atlantic League has the highest quality of play in Indy Ball, possibly falling somewhere between AA and AAA leagues in the affiliated ladder.

The American Association has a lower quality of play, but more talented young players.  The American Association has received national attention as an alternative for unsigned draft picks, such as Tanner Scheppers and Aaron Crow.  The Frontier League might be even a little lower in terms of quality play, with league rules placing age and experience restrictions on team rosters.   But this has made the Frontier League a haven for raw or under-scouted amateur players.

The development of unaffiliated baseball could be a response to the labor market for players.  There could be a larger raw amount of players capable of playing at level suitable for entertainment.  Or perhaps the growth in the consumer market for sports and entertainment is behind change.  Whatever the reason, MLB clubs now scout independent leagues coast to coast looking for talent.

On a whole, Major League clubs do a remarkable job at selecting and retaining the players with the highest probability of contributing in the major leagues.  But when a few players slip through the cracks, they are likely to end up on an independent team's roster.  This allows for a  MLB clubs to get a second chance on a great number of players.

Instead of adding an additional minor league affiliate, MLB teams can use the lower-level Indy Leagues to identify talent that might have been missed in the draft.  Essentially, teams find it more viable to have some of this player identification take place externally. This is an obvious example of how teams can use Indy Leagues for functions that alternatively could be performed internally.

Another area where this could be occurring is in the high-minors.  Teams would like to devote most of their AA and AAA plate appearances and innings to prospects.  But all teams must also find a way to store several waves of depth options in the upper levels. And over the course of the season, between injuries and call-ups, sometimes players are needed just to fill out rosters.

So instead of having to carry every player a team might need on opening day rosters, teams can pick and choose depth options and roster fillers from the Atlantic League.  Not only does this save roster spots, but it also offers great flexibility and decreases costs.  The Atlantic League basically serves as temp agency (with a low cost to purchase contracts, about $4,000).

This can be especially valuable when dealing with longshots or reclamation projects such as Dontrelle Willis or Tracy McGrady.  Instead of using up valuable minor league innings and roster spots on these types of players, the teams can wait and see how they perform before making a commitment. The worst case scenario, if the player performed well, would be small-scale bidding war with other interested MLB clubs.

The return of independent minor league baseball has been celebrated among baseball fans.  MLB teams are able to take advantage of their existence to outsource specific functions that would be less viable to perform internally.  In this sense, Major League Baseball is acting in line with labor market trends in many other industries.