By MiLB.com

By Ashley Marshall/MiLB.com

The 2015 season is quickly becoming the year of the ransom note, but don’t expect to hold Todd Van Steensel hostage.

The Cleveland Indians made headlines earlier this month when its bullpen kept Brandon Moss’ 100th home run ball hostage. Later, the Indians’ starters presented a list of expensive demands to Francisco Lindor to recover the ball from his first big league hit.

Something similar is unlikely to ever happen in the Florida State League, where Australian right-hander Van Steensel is plying his trade.

It’s been well documented that Minor Leaguers don’t make too much money, and Van Steensel is a perfect example of just how paycheck-to-paycheck some Minor Leaguers live.

I reached out to Van Steensel, the closer for Class A Advanced Fort Myers, in Spring Training to see if he would be willing to itemize his expenses throughout the 2015 season. With the first half nearing a close, here are the findings.

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From Opening Day through June 17, Van Steensel earned $3,213 in wages and he was given $737.50 in per diems — the money the Major League organization allocates to players each day for food.

The bad news is he has already paid $570 in taxes, $2,688.75 on rent and a combined $903 on dinner, lunch and groceries. He was forced to borrow money from teammate Brandon Peterson to pay his rent when the landlord demanded the first four months up front plus a security deposit, and he’s already paid $609 in clubhouse dues with a similar number expected in the second half of the season.

Van Steensel is in the red before he takes into account other everyday expenses like coffee or occasional trips to the cinema or an ice cream cone.

In total, Van Steensel has spent $700 more than he’s earned, and he still owes Peterson almost $450.

“We get by, but we’re not comfortable with it,” Van Steensel said. “You have to watch what you buy. When the season started, I had $50 in my checking account and then waited 10 days for my first paycheck. I don’t have enough money for a savings account because I try to save money for emergencies like rent.”

The reliever has spent $431 on groceries, $206 on lunch and $266 on dinners. Over the course of 71 days, that averages out to $12 a day, hardly an extravagant amount.

“I go to Jimmy John’s and Chipotle a lot. I know my Jimmy John’s sub is $7 and I know my Chipotle is $7. That helps me budget,” he said.

On the road, Van Steensel’s meals of choice are the №9 Italian Night Club sandwich — genoa salami, Italian capicola, smoked ham and provolone with lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo — at Jimmy John’s and the chicken burrito bowl at Chipotle. He considers both meals good value for money, especially when he needs carbohydrates and protein.

“If I have a bit of spare change, I’ll get double meat,” he said, only partly joking. “[On the road], we’ll try to find a Chipotle close by and we’ll walk a mile and make it a big team trip, but if [a city] doesn’t have one, we have to eat out and use our meal money, and that gets expensive.

“If there’s a lot of leftovers [in the clubhouse after a game], I’ll take a plate back to the house and eat it for lunch the next day. Pasta, rice, chicken, whatever.”

Van Steensel started the season living in the Twins’ apartment accommodation, which cost just $10 a day. However, after moving into an apartment with outfielder Zach Granite and pitcher Brian Gilbert on May 1, his expenses got a lot more, well, expensive. On the day he started his lease, each member of the threesome was required to pay $2,688.75.

Peterson, now with Double-A Chattanooga, helped him out by loaning him almost $1,250 with Van Steensel footing the rest of the bill. He hopes to have the entire debt paid off by the end of June after paying an $800 installment earlier this month.

“They needed all the rent up front — four months’ rent and a $500 security deposit. Luckily I had some of my signing bonus left — well, what’s left of it.”

Van Steensel got a $60,000 bonus when he joined the Twins in 2008, but he admits there’s very little of that left after more than seven years of living paycheck to paycheck between the Minor Leagues, the Australian Baseball League and the Dutch Major League. He doesn’t get paid during the offseason.

* * *

Since April 8, Van Steensel has spent almost $600 on incidental costs, ranging from snacks and cellphone bills to drinks and nights out. He’s spent $32 on seven cups of coffee, $60 to subscribe to Apple TV, $8 to buy a lanyard for his keys, $20 to pay his membership to the professional baseball association and $80 for two months of cellphone coverage.

Then there’s $43 for an HDMI cable to hook his laptop up to his TV, $95 for a road trip to Miami, $67 on random snacks and $69 on three tips to the cinema to see The Avengers, The Wedding Ringer and Jurassic World.

Van Steensel said he sometimes feels guilty about even the smallest purchase.

“After every road trip, we have lunch at a gas station in Fort Myers. We get snacks or chocolate or stuff, but those $2 and $4 add up. Chocolate milk is my splurge. And $29 for a movie [and snacks] seems a lot, but it takes your mind off baseball and lets you have fun. You can justify spending the money.”

Van Steensel has used the same glove for the past five years — partly because he likes it and can’t find the same model any more, and partly because it’s another expense that he doesn’t need. He only has two pairs of cleats, one that he wears at home and leaves in the clubhouse and the other that he keeps in his travel bag, and he’s responsible for buying all his own other baseball equipment like undershirts and compression pants.

But though his wages are the highest they’ve been since his first season in 2009, he actually has less disposable income this year. In Cedar Rapids in 2014, Van Steensel lived with a host family who didn’t charge him rent and who let him use a car free of charge. Though he only got paid $490 every two weeks, the money stretched a little further.

Despite it all, Van Steensel has found innovative ways to make a few extra bucks.

“One of my Aussie teammates got lazy and I saw an opportunity to make some money,” said Van Steensel, who shares a hotel room with fellow right-hander Alex Muren when the team is on the road.

“We were living in the Twins academy and [Lewis Thorpe] said that he had to do his laundry but didn’t want to. I said I’ll do it for $20. One load of laundry later and I was $20 richer.

“Another time, we were in a car waiting for one of our teammates and Logan Wade told Zach Granite he’d pay him $20 if he ate a raw egg. I think he was grossed out by it, so I jumped out of the car and sucked down the egg.”

For now, Van Steensel is keeping his eyes open for money-making opportunities.

“We just get by. At the end of the day, I would rather be here than working 9–5 back home, so I try not to complain too much,” said Van Steensel, who goes back to Sydney to live with his parents from September to February each winter. “If they come to me with their laundry, I won’t say no.”