While consolidating the minor leagues during the 2020 season, Major League Baseball claimed that reducing and realigning its developmental leagues would increase player salaries at all levels, increase condition standards at ballparks and clubhouses, and create lower operating costs for teams. Some minor league players in the Los Angeles Angels organization say that is not happening for them. Kieran Lovegrove, an active pitcher for the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas, said he is living with six other teammates in a three-bedroom apartment, sleeping on a twin mattress, with one person sleeping in the kitchen and two others in the living room. Others like Shane Kelso -- who spent part of the 2021 season with the low-A Inland Empire 66ers, another Angels affiliate, before retiring due to the living conditions for players -- said four teammates bunked in a camper van in a trailer park while others lived out of cars. "It's gotten to the point now where there are guys who are in a serious mental health crisis because of how stressful money is here," Lovegrove told ESPN. "I really do think it affects not only their play on the field, but I think it affects quality of life overall. We're reaching a point now where this is actually becoming detrimental to the players' overall health, and the owner not addressing it is [the organization] actively saying that they don't care about the health of their players." Kelso said he was losing $1,000 a month from his savings and would have been broke before the end of the season had he not decided to retire; rent for his housing cost $2,000, but the team paid him $1,600 a month. "People don't understand the mental strain that comes along with that, that you don't know how much money you're going to have at the end of each month and not knowing how you're going to make ends meet," Kelso said. "I was a late-rounder. I didn't sign for a lot of money. The vast majority of players are in my position." Lovegrove worked as a Lyft and Uber driver and as a warehouse worker for UPS and Best Buy in the offseason to supplement his minor league income and maintain his career pursuit in baseball.