Hey, it’s Zack.
The MLB season ended Wednesday night. Milwaukee won the World Series. The ballparks are closed, the players are headed home, and baseball is supposed to be over.
It is not over. It never is anymore. Somewhere this weekend a kid is playing his fourth game of a fall tournament, and his parents just wrote another check. That is what I want to talk about this week. What the amateur game costs now, what the odds really look like, and what actually helps a kid stand out.
THE ENTRANCE
Milwaukee won the World Series on Wednesday night.
Game 5 at Tropicana Field. Brewers 4, Rays 1. The first championship in the history of the franchise.
Tampa Bay stayed alive in Game 4 and won it in 12 innings. Milwaukee finished the job the next night. The franchise’s only other trip to the Series, back in 1982, ended with a loss in Game 7. This one ended with a trophy.
William Contreras was the MVP of the series. He hit .381, drove in four runs, and ran the pitching staff all series. Jacob Misiorowski threw scoreless baseball in the clincher.
Two weeks ago in this newsletter I took Milwaukee in six. They did it in five. I am fine being wrong that way.
The parade is done. The pro season is over. Nobody in the big leagues plays again until February. The kids do. Their season does not stop. It does not really stop at all anymore. Let’s dive into it.
THE DELIVERY
This weekend there are fall tournaments going on. Showcases. Private lessons are booking up for the winter. A kid can play baseball twelve months a year now. A lot of them do.
Start with the money.
The Aspen Institute asked sports parents all over the country what they spend. In 2024, the average family spent $1,016 on one kid’s main sport. That is up 46 percent since 2019. Baseball came out the most expensive of the three big sports, ahead of soccer and basketball. What baseball families spend went up 68 percent in five years.
That average covers everybody, rec leagues included. Travel ball is a different bill. The team fee is only the starting point. Add tournament weekends, hotels, gas and food, private lessons, and a showcase entry that can run $600 to $800 on its own, and a family can spend several thousand dollars a year on one kid. Plenty of families spend more than that.
One parent survey put the average travel team fee at about $2,178 a year. That is the fee alone, before anybody pays for a hotel room, a tank of gas, or a single lesson.
Travel ball is big business.
Most of that money is chasing one thing. A scholarship. Here is how many of those are actually out there.
The NCAA counts 472,598 kids playing high school baseball in this country. About 2.7 percent of them end up playing Division I baseball.
For a long time a Division I program had 11.7 scholarships to spread across the whole roster. So the scholarship was almost never the full ride people picture. It covered a quarter of the bill. A third, if a kid was lucky. People hear the word scholarship and think college is paid for. In baseball it usually meant part of it was.
The rules changed in 2025. Most Division I schools now have a 34-man roster limit instead of the old scholarship cap. A school can put more money into baseball than it used to. Whether it does is up to the school. The rosters got smaller too. Teams used to carry 35 to 40 guys. Now they carry 34.
Go down a level and the money gets thinner. Division II programs split 9 scholarships across the roster. Division III schools give no athletic scholarships at all.
Then there is the portal. A coach who needs a bat today can go sign a 22-year-old who has already faced college pitching. Plenty of coaches do exactly that. So a high school senior is not just up against other high school seniors. He is up against college players who already have seasons behind them.
That is why more kids go the junior college route first. They have to show they can play at that level before a four-year school takes them. And every level of the college game feels that same squeeze.
At the same time, the pro door got smaller.
Through 2019 the draft ran 40 rounds and more than 1,200 players got picked every year. Since 2021 it has been 20 rounds. This past summer about 613 players heard their names called. Half the draft is gone. I was on the MLBPA subcommitte when this change was made and we didn’t take it lightly.
Behind the draft, the minors shrank too. In 2021 the affiliated minors went from 160 teams down to 120. That is fewer teams, fewer jobs, and a longer climb for anybody in it.
That is the amateur game right now. It costs more than it used to. There are not many college spots. The draft is half what it was. I am not saying kids should not play. All I am saying is a family should know the numbers before it spends like the odds are better than they are.
THE SAVE
So how does a kid stand out?
Not by paying to play more baseball.
The best way to stand out is to become the best athlete you can.
Spend more time in the gym getting stronger. A stronger kid throws harder. He hits the ball harder. And his body holds up better over a long season. Durability is the most important attribute if you want a long career in this game.
Focus on the small details. The plain, boring reps that make a swing and a delivery repeatable.
Go run track. Play basketball. Play football. Play soccer. Be a great athlete.
Specializing early does not build pros. It builds injuries. A kid makes the same motion twelve months a year, year after year, with no break in it. Same muscles and joints, over and over. Young arms break down that way. Other sports build different strength, and they give the baseball muscles time to rest.
Rest is part of it too. Real time off, every year, where the arm does something else or does nothing. A kid’s body is still growing while all of this is going on. And rest is the one thing in this whole deal that costs nothing.
I played twelve years in the big leagues. The guys who lasted were not the ones with the biggest showcase schedule at 14. They were good athletes. They were strong, and they understood the work away from the diamond was just as important as the playing. Most of all, they stayed healthy. Scott Boras used to say it to me all the time. It is not his original line, but he meant it: “The best ability is availability.”
That happens with the work you do outside of playing the game. It happens in a weight room and on a track, in the season of another sport.
The work is not complicated. It is just not the part anybody can sell you.
Talk soon, Z
The Save is a personal newsletter based on my own experiences, opinions, and recollections. The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not represent any team, organization, union or employer past or present. When discussing players, contracts or organizational decisions I am sharing my perspective as a former player — not making legal or financial claims. When I share stories involving others I am telling them from my point of view. When I share tips or lessons I am sharing what worked for me. Always do your own research and consult professionals when making important decisions.
