Cy Sneed frequently gets asked the same questions when he's substitute teaching: “Why are you working here? Aren’t you a millionaire?”
Sneed, a pitcher in the Houston Astros organization who reached Triple A last season, politely disregards the question.
“Well, no, not really. I make enough money doing this so I can afford to do the baseball stuff.”
MORE: Top 79 free agents
Like many other minor leaguers, Sneed settles for an offseason job to have a supplemental income because of low salaries before reaching the big leagues. Even for those who reach Triple-A, the average annual salary is less than $11,000, which diminishes after taxes and is only paid during the season.
Federal minimum is wage is $7.25, which totals $15,080 per year with a 40-hour work week.
Sneed, who works as a substitute teacher in the Kenai, Alaska Peninsula school district and as a tutor at Alaska Christian College, is content during offseasons because of the location and flexibility of the jobs.
“I love it, (Alaskans are) my kind of people,” Sneed said. “You can either get a minimum-wage job where you’re pretty much on a set schedule versus this, where you can a little bit make your own schedule and it just pays a little bit better. It pays about twice as much as what we make during the season."
Despite the need to find a side job to support himself in the offseason, “Mr. Sneeze" — as he's affectionately called by some kindergarten students — is grateful that his primary role involves playing a kid’s game for a living.
“It gives you a perspective of I could be coming and being a teacher every single day or I could be doing this or that,” Sneed said. “I know people who help build pools or do carpentry or build cabins, stuff like that. At the end of the day, what would you rather do: Play baseball or do this? It gives you a little bit of drive to keep going and really work hard at it and try to get to the big leagues.”
Still, the struggle of being a minor leaguer can force those who aspire to play at the likes of Fenway Park and Wrigley Field into some tough situations in order for the dream to become a reality.
“It’s tough to make money because you don’t make money in the minor leagues and it’s even worse at the lower levels. In A ball you’re probably making a little over $1,000 a month, so down there it’s even worse,” said Kyle Wren, an outfielder in the Reds organization, who worked at his dad’s carwash over multiple offseasons. “You hear about guys living six people in a two-bedroom place. It’s tough.”
Wren, who played in Triple A last season for the Brewers and Red Sox, is in a more comfortable situation since signing a minor league free-agent deal, but had to be cautious in the first six years of his career to not bleed out his signing bonus, which was part of the reason he opted to work in the offseason.
MORE: Blue Jays invite Vlad Jr. to Spring Training
Another minor leaguer, Dusty Isaacs, chooses to drive for Uber in the non-baseball months, a decision that was made because it allows him to pay rent and cover other living expenses while also giving him ample time to keep his body in baseball shape.
“I was having a really difficult time finding some sort of job to where I feel like I could adequately train, lift, throw, condition, while still working,” said Isaacs, a relief pitcher who spent most of last season in Double A.
Isaacs will most often drive on occasional weekday mornings and afternoons and is usually fulfilled in his conversations with passengers, who have ranged from Olympic speedskaters to CEOs to teachers running late for school.
While he doesn’t often disclose his profession while driving, when it does come up Isaacs will get asked similar questions as Sneed, as most assume he doesn’t need to be driving for Uber because he's a baseball player.
“That just goes to show you that a lot of people associate minor league baseball with being rich or well off,” Isaacs said.
Even with no game action in the offseason months, minor leaguers still need to stay in top shape for spring training, forcing them to find a healthy medium between baseball and their other jobs.
“You would like to enjoy yourself a little bit and do those things, and see your family and see your friends and have a little time to yourself, but fitting all that stuff in an offseason can actually be pretty difficult,” Sneed said. “It’s kind of just a big balancing act of trying to balance all those things and get enough of each in to where you enjoy your offseason, but you also make it worthwhile to where you’re heading in to spring training and you’re ready to go.”
Other players, such as Cody Decker, have created their own offseason jobs. Decker, a Diamondbacks minor leaguer, hosts a trivia show across different bars, restaurants and theaters in the Los Angeles area.
Decker, who has worked at a baseball school and gym, and as a bartender and bouncer among other occupations, said he decided to take over the show after the trivia show at the place he used to bartend was “boring and run-of-the-mill.” Recently, it’s gone from a job to a hobby that he carries around with him.
“Over the years it has evolved into a more multimedia platform where it’s more or less a variety show with me on the microphone and there are some questions and prizes involved,” Decker said. “So much so that I have integrated it — let’s say I’m playing for a team where we have a bus trip, I will run bus trivia with the players so we can pass along a seven-hour bus ride.
“I do something that is uniquely mine. Nobody else does something like it, I know that for a fact.”
Gaining a different outlook on life outside the sport has proven valuable for the players, who can apply the real-world lessons and experience both in the present and when their careers conclude.
That being said, none of them would trade the opportunity to play professional baseball on a daily basis.
“I would say it makes you value hard work, that’s for sure,” Decker said. “Especially in those early years, you just had to work your ass off to stay afloat. I was a senior sign out of college, so I didn’t get paid anything. It was eye opening, what it’s going to take to get going, to live this dream.”