ALLENTOWN, Pa. — If things go well for William Simoneit this season, he'll find himself suiting up for the IronPigs.
A 27-year-old catcher for the Double-A Reading Fightin Phils, Simoneit said he's working with coaches to improve his swing at the plate and his receiving skills behind it.
"Ultimately, it’s about getting better every day. I know that sounds a little corny, but that’s truly what you need to do," the Park Ridge, Ill., native said in an interview last week.
But even if his name is never introduced by a PA announcer to a major league crowd, Simoneit has already helped reshape the sport for generations of future ball players.
Shortly after inking his first minor league contract with the Oakland Athletics in 2020, he joined the effort to unionize the minor leagues. That work paid off last year when the players and Major League Baseball agreed to the terms of their first collective bargaining agreement, offering players raises and significant improvements to their quality-of-life while pursuing their dreams of reaching the big leagues.
"I think it has been challenging. All the work I do for the union is completely voluntary. I do sacrifice free time and mental energy, whatever that may be."William Simoneit
In November, minor leaguers elected Simoneit as an MLBPA player representative.
That makes him one of the leading voices in the labor negotiations in professional baseball; the minor leaguers and major leaguers share the same executive subcommittee, meaning Simoneit is making decisions alongside established stars like Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets and Marcus Semien of the Texas Rangers.
"I think it has been challenging. All the work I do for the union is completely voluntary. I do sacrifice free time and mental energy, whatever that may be," Simoneit said. "I’ve always seen it as something I feel equipped to do."
'The stars aligned'
That may be an understatement. While many prospects began their careers as teenagers, Simoneit began his career at 24 and held a master of science in management degree from Wake Forest University. He spent his undergraduate years studying and playing at Cornell University, where he graduated from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations — the same program that produced MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred and National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman.
"The stars kind of aligned and I was kind of perfect for this job, and I wanted to lean into that," Simoneit said.
Before Simoneit even donned a uniform for his first minor league team in 2020, he said, he was contacted by Harry Marino, an attorney who for years had urged minor league players to unionize. While MLB players enjoy one of the strongest unions in professional sports, horror stories have circulated about working conditions in the minors.
The minors present not only a test of skill but of fortitude. Advancing to the next level requires not only the ability to grind out at-bats, but for many also grinding out an existence on poverty-level wages.
Simoneit said he made about $12,000 his first year in pro ball. At the time, minor leaguers didn't get paid at all to attend mandatory spring training.
To make ends meet, it wasn't unusual to see seven teammates renting a house together with little to no furniture, Simoneit said. Most times, players had just days to figure out their living arrangements after getting assigned to a team, often in a new city.
He was fortunate enough that he could afford a mattress during his first year playing for the High-A Lansing Lugnuts. His roommate spent the season sleeping on an air mattress, he said. Conditions were often tougher for foreign players, who often sent money back home to support their families.
And while players were grateful for an opportunity to make a career playing a children's game, the conditions they lived in made it nearly impossible to function in a modern society. Even with his college degrees, Simoneit said he struggled to get approved for a credit card.
"There are just basic adulting things that were challenging, like building a credit score — things that people don’t think about, they're tools of adulthood that you don’t have access to," Simoneit said.
Simoneit's career began during a period of upheaval for the minor leagues. In 2019, Major League Baseball had already announced it was shrinking Minor League Baseball by 40 teams, slashing the number of jobs for players.
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020, MLB canceled the season without consulting any of the minor league players. The pandemic came as major league players were engaged in a contentious lockout with franchise owners, driving up awareness of labor negotiations.
So Simoneit and other players and activists spent the next few years talking with players about their interest in unionizing, finding common ground and talking about how they could improve their working conditions. It was a natural fit for Simoneit, who said his interest in building relationships and resolving conflicts attracted him to his labor negotiation studies.
Along with pay and housing problems, big issues focused on nutrition. Teams were required to provide players with meals before and after games, but the quality of the spreads ranged widely from franchise to franchise. Activists seized on one team that provided players with fajitas that were more tortilla than protein or vegetables in one instance, Simoneit said.
A historic agreement
The communication and hard work paid off.
In September 2022, a majority of the 5,500 minor league players signed authorization cards, signaling their desire to join the Major League Baseball Players Union. MLB voluntarily recognized the union, and the two sides agreed to terms for their first collective bargaining agreement in March 2023.
Under the terms, the league agreed to provide housing for its minor leaguers with special accommodations being made for those with families.
Pay went up across the board as well. Someone reporting to High-A ball should be making about 80% more than what Simoneit made upon entering the minors, according to union documents. Players now get paid for spring training, too.
The changes have made an enormous difference, he said, as players can better focus on their development and less about paying their rent.
And while the union will likely work to further improve pay and standardizing the benefits offered by the 30 MLB franchises in future collective bargaining agreements, many of the old horror stories appear to be things of the past.
"There’s a thought, 'What if someone up at the top doesn’t like that?' At the end of the day, I wanted to stand up for myself and my teammates about what was fair."William Simoneit
Simoneit expressed mixed feelings about his leadership role in the union, showing pride in the accomplishments but questioning how his work to upend decades of labor practice would impact his career.
"There’s a thought, 'What if someone up at the top doesn’t like that?' At the end of the day, I wanted to stand up for myself and my teammates about what was fair," he said.
For now, he believes his efforts have drawn interest from his current franchise.
The Philadelphia Phillies selected him in the minor league Rule 5 draft last winter. Simoneit is off to a slow start in Reading, but he's quickly appreciated the investment the franchise has made in its minor leaguers and thinks they're looking for players who make similar investments in themselves.
"I think the Phillies appreciate guys who are engaged in their careers," he said.
