Portland Sea Dogs players Tyreque Reed, left, and Nick Sogard share a furnished apartment in South Portland provided by the Boston Red Sox, the Sea Dogs’ major league affiliate. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Darin Gillies recalls his first apartment as a minor league baseball player with the Class A Clinton Lumberkings in Iowa in 2016.

At times the place felt like a clown car.

“Two of us shared one room, two of us shared another room, and another guy was on an air mattress in the living room. This place was tiny, tiny. It wasn’t suitable for five people, let alone five grown men,” said Gillies, 29, a reliever who pitched earlier this season with the Portland Sea Dogs.

The crowded apartment was the best Gillies and his teammates could afford. Starting this season, however, housing is a problem minor league ballplayers no longer have to worry about.

Major League Baseball now requires its 30 big league teams to provide housing for their minor league players during the season and spring training. For players on the Sea Dogs, who earn a minimum of $600 per week as members of the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, eliminating the burden of housing costs is a big deal. They are paid only during the season, earning about $14,400 over 24 weeks. The minimum salary for major league players, by contrast, is $700,000 a year.

“Living, it ain’t inexpensive. We don’t get paid much as it is. It was just hard,” said Sea Dogs first baseman Tyreque Reed. “Thankfully this year, MLB, they’re paying for housing, and it’s been awesome. I’ve been able to save a couple dollars here and there.

“When I was with the (Texas) Rangers (farm system), it was definitely hard paying rent. Getting food is expensive, especially if you eat good, it’s definitely more expensive. Being able to eat healthy now has been a big thing for me.”

Major League Baseball’s decision to pay for housing for minor leaguers comes after years of litigation seeking better pay and conditions for the players, who, unlike major leaguers, do not have a union to negotiate on their behalf. Last year, MLB significantly raised salaries for all minor leaguers. Players at the Double-A level saw their minimum salaries jump from $350 to $600 a week.

In early May, MLB reached a deal in a class-action lawsuit filed by retired minor league players in 2014. Former Sea Dogs infielder Ryan Khoury was one of the plaintiffs in the suit, which claims that the pay scale for minor leaguers was in violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

“It’s really encouraging for me, for future players and some of these guys … just knowing that’s something they don’t have to deal with anymore,” Gillies said of the Red Sox paying for housing. “That’s a struggle that’s off of their shoulders. I can just tell, day in and day out, the attitudes of guys (is better). It’s something that was a burden for such a long time.”

The minor league housing standards outlined by MLB allow for two players to share a bedroom. The Red Sox decided that was not feasible, and instructed their four minor league affiliates to find apartments in which each player would have his own bedroom.

“We found there’s not many apartment bedrooms big enough to fit two (full-sized) beds. We’re not putting our players in twin-sized beds,” said Patrick McLaughlin, director of minor league operations for the Red Sox. “This is a chance to give them the chance to focus on their career. So far, everything we’ve heard from the players is positive. It seems to be a big burden off their shoulders.”

Along with rent, the Red Sox furnished each apartment and pay for utilities such as heat, electricity, gas and Wi-Fi. The Red Sox turned to the front office of each minor league affiliate: Portland, Worcester (Triple-A), Greenville (High-A), and Salem (Low-A) for help in finding apartments in each community. Along with individual bedrooms for each player, the Red Sox wanted the apartments to be a short trip to the ballpark, and to be near supermarkets and restaurants to help accommodate players without cars.

The Red Sox rent 16 apartments in the Portland area. With southern Maine’s tight rental market, it was the most difficult of the affiliate cities in which to find apartments, McLaughlin said.

“We had the conversation early on, the rental market’s tight. We provide housing for our coaching staff. We’ve always done that,” said Geoff Iacuessa, the Sea Dogs’ general manager. “Last summer we couldn’t find apartments for our coaching staff. We ended up putting them in a hotel. I was concerned in the winter whether or not there’d be enough apartments to find for all the players. Somehow, it all worked out.

“Fortunately in this area, there’s a lot of great apartment complexes. We really tried to make sure we found places I’d stay, and our staff would stay. Safe, clean.”

Of the 12 cities in the Eastern League, Portland has the third-highest median rent for a two bedroom apartment. According to rentdata.org, the median cost of a two-bedroom apartment in the greater Portland area is $1,726 per month. Only Bowie, Maryland ($1,927), home of the Bowie Bay Sox and approximately 20 miles east of Washington, D.C., and Somerset County, New Jersey ($1,908), home of the Somerset Patriots and 40 miles west of New York City, have higher rent prices among the league’s 12 cities.

At the other end, the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Altoona, Pennsylvania, home of the Altoona Curve, is $895 a month, about half the cost of a similar apartment in Portland.

Portland’s Nick Sogard dives back to first on a pickoff attempt by Reading in a game at Hadlock Field on May 3. “With the salary we’re working with,” he says, “you can’t just be spending money on all sorts of stuff. You’ve got to be careful with what you’re doing. Even still, housing is being paid for, but that doesn’t mean we’re rolling in it by any means.” Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Last season, Reed and infielder Nick Sogard spent the entire season living in a room at the Hilton Garden Inn near the Portland International Jetport. Reed said he couldn’t remember the cost, but “it wasn’t cheap.” This season, Reed and Sogard share a two-bedroom apartment. On a recent morning before they went to Hadlock Field for that evening’s game against Somerset, Sogard and Reed played video games on the large-screen television the Red Sox provided.

“Finding a place to stay for the whole year can be a stressful time at the beginning of the season,” Sogard said. “With the salary we’re working with, you can’t just be spending money on all sorts of stuff. You’ve got to be careful with what you’re doing. Even still, housing is being paid for, but that doesn’t mean we’re rolling in it by any means.”

For years, many Sea Dogs players lived with host families during the season. Last year, because of pandemic restrictions, host families were not an option. Iacuessa said while host families are again an option for Portland players this season, all the current Sea Dogs elected to live in an apartment provided by the Red Sox.

When Gillies played in Tacoma, Washington, in the Seattle Mariners organization, rents were more than he was making.

“When I got moved up to Tacoma, luckily for me I found a host family. I don’t know if I’d been able to afford to live there,” Gillies said. “When the housing market was crazy high, it was really hard to find places. The biggest thing we struggle with is finding places that are able to be available for a couple of months, like a six-month lease. Most places these days want year leases and long commitments. The nature of our work, that’s very hard to find.”

Sea Dogs infielder Christian Koss and his wife, Laura, were married on Feb. 5. They were happy to know they wouldn’t have to scramble to find an apartment upon arriving in Portland in early April. That’s what happened when Koss arrived in Greenville, South Carolina, last year to begin his first full minor league season.

Sea Dogs infielder Christian Koss, right, shared an apartment with two other players last year in Greenville, South Carolina. “That was what we could find for cheap,” he says. “If we had to (pay rent) with these apartments (in Portland), it was probably going to be four guys.” Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

“Right when you leave spring training, that’s when you find out you’re stationed on what team. You have a week to find other people on that roster and start calling places that hopefully have short-term leasing. It’s a couple hectic days for us, especially traveling, too,” Koss said.

Koss and two teammates shared a two-bedroom apartment in Greenville last season. They each paid just over $500 per month. They rented beds, and furnished the living room with lawn chairs.

“Two guys to split that place was going to be $800 (each), so you have to have a guy in the living room,” Koss said. “That was what we could find for cheap. If we had to (pay rent) with these apartments (in Portland), it was probably going to be four guys.”

Koss said Laura visited him in Greenville last season and was dismayed by his living conditions. Both Koss and Laura are happy with the one-bedroom apartment provided to them for the season.

“It’s clean. Everything we could ask for. I think she was surprised we lucked into this. She visited me in Greenville and she saw those apartments, and she knew what minor leaguers can get into. It eases a lot of things we’d have to go through. Not even the financial side. The headaches and the things that go with trying to figure all that out,” Koss said.