I did this interview a couple of weeks ago with Chef Mike, who runs the Dodgers Food Trailer for the Great Lakes Loons. They are there for every home and road regular season and playoff game. They prepare three meals a day for approximately 50 people (players and coaches). Since games end late most evenings, they do not prepare breakfast. Many of their hotels have a complimentary breakfast anyway. However, they do provide a nutritious, balanced, athletic diet for Lunch, Pre-Game Snacks, and Dinner after the game.
For the 2026 season, minor-league players receive $32.50 per day in road-trip per diem. It applies to each day they are traveling with their club during the regular season or postseason. In addition, teams must provide two nutritious meals each day the player reports for a game or workout, including both home and road games: one before and one afterward, plus clubhouse snacks.
So, in practical terms:
Road games: two team-provided meals plus $32.50 cash per day.
Home games: two team-provided meals, but generally no daily cash per diem.
Obviously, there are two problems here:
- Some players might choose to drink their per diem; and
- Some foreign-born players send their per diem home to their parents.
The Dodgers solved both problems by providing the meals to the players. They have food trailers at all four levels to ensure their minor leaguers receive both athletic training and high nutrition. Here’s the video interview:
P.S. The cover photo is AI. The trailer is actually unmarked…
Discussion (46)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Oh and to bad my last take on the old website didn't carry over. It's cool. Everyone knows my thoughts on AF and the deadline.
Book em
Clean, professional and easy on the eyes. Also, nice segue from the old site to the new. Of all the blogs I read, the commenters here are heads and tails above the rest. Kudos to you Mark and thank you for LADT!
Book em
Love the new format. Very professional. Now what can you do to upgrade the comments?
Hi Mark. This is my 1st attempt to sign in on your new site. I'm a dummy when it comes to computer tech., so this is a test. BTW I couldn't get sound on your interviews with bus driver and chef. Any reason You might know that this could happen?
Caution: original joke incoming
With today's bad air quality, will we see Choki Sasaki tonight?
Damn Mark, I'm impressed with the new web site. Really nice. Well done.
I may be wrong about this, I'm too busy to look up in any depth, but last year at the deadline I think the only healthy arms were:
Yamamoto and Sheehan. Wrobleski and Sasaki were quite diminshed contra this season. Snell and Glasnow were on the shelf then too? No? And we had May.
What did the Front Office do?
A mid-upper tier reliever and a bench piece. They even moved a starter.
But this year, with the team better and the starting pitching much better, people think the Dodgers will drastically diverge?
Dodgers’ Probable Starters This Weekend Against The Yankees In The Bronx
Friday: Roki Sasaki (3-5, 5.33 ERA) vs. Gerrit Cole (3-4, 4.04 ERA)
Saturday: Emmet Sheehan (4-6, 4.81 ERA) vs. Ryan Weathers (3-7, 4.15 ERA)
Sunday: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (9-6, 2.85 ERA) vs. Cam Schlittler (9-5, 2.06 ERA)
Are you guys adding the @ sign for clarity on replies?
New York has been blanketed by smoke since Wednesday, but conditions have likely improved enough for Friday's game to play out as scheduled.
The air quality index (AQI) as of late Friday morning was 122 in the Bronx, according to AirNow, which is only in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" range, and the forecast is expected to moderately improve throughout the day Friday as smoke pushes further south.
Unless the forecast is wrong, the Yankees and Dodgers figure to play, just as the Mets and Phillies played Thursday night with a bit of a haze over the stadium.
Format looks pretty solid. Nice upgrade. No worries about the glitches or hiccups.
Like the new format. Some web sites allow the user to go straight to the comments from the home page. Is this something that you are considering?
Quite the change. Fortunately our 13 year old granddaughter is staying with us for the summer to assist me.
Currently, we have lost the video media - trying to restore and get Bear's last draft back.
Love the new format
There will likely be some glitches with the new site. We are working on it.
I like the new format, it looks more modern, very good!
New site format looks good. If you scramble all the parts of something, it's still the same. Go Blue!
Yankees had lost 11 of 12 before they won their last four games going into the break. They are still waiting for Aaron Judge to return.
LOL are you kidding me what's next a deep dive with the team janitor?
According to MLBTR, the Mets will be sellers at the deadline. They would like to move Lindor who is having an awful season. Bichette is owed 42 mil next year, so he will probably be hard to move. But they could trade Freddie Peralta and Luke Weaver.
Bluto, you were wrong. Close but no cigar. Ohtani did indeed homer in the second game of the Cubs series, but his homer came in the 5th inning and was the third LA homer of the game. Tommy Edman homered off of Justin Steele in the 3rd, and Kike homered off of him in the 4th. The last LA homer of the year did indeed belong to Shohei, LA hit 3 homers in that game also, Kim in the 2nd off of Bryce Miller, his 3rd, Freeman in the 3rd off of Miller, his 24th, and Ohtani off of Gabe Speier in the 7th, his 55th.
Anybody read Plaschke this morning?
“The Dodgers need to deal for Skubal.”
It read like I was reading my own thoughts. I know many think he’s just a crabby old man. Maybe that’s why I like him. I can identify with what he writes and how he writes it. Not always of course, but often.
It feels like it’s unfolding just how I thought it might. The Dodgers need starting pitching they can count on. Snell and Glasnow? They’ve been ghosts to this point. Can they be counted on? Maybe. Ryan? Maybe. What’s with Ohtani? Does he need rest? Sasaki? Sheehan?
The Dodgers need to deal for Skubal.
These guys don’t get paid much. So great perk for them. So how do other teams provide the 2 meals? Do they pay for that PLUS give the $32.50?