This study examines minor league baseball players’ future-oriented labor by interviewing 44 baseball players and collecting data on 8,000 minor league baseball players’ careers. Minor league baseball players’ expectations of reaching Major League Baseball impacted how they evaluated their work in the present, leading them to tolerate unfair pay and working conditions. We show that players’ expectations of reaching Major League Baseball were moderately unrealistic, partly due to managerial practices encouraging unrealistic expectations. This study contributes to labor research by showing that future-oriented labor ideology is based on unrealistic expectations that employers can promote to create opportunities for future status coercion.

本研究通过采访 44 名棒球运动员并收集 8,000 名小联盟棒球运动员的职业生涯数据，调查了小联盟棒球运动员的未来导向劳动力。小联盟棒球运动员对进入美国职业棒球大联盟的期望影响了他们对当前工作的评价，导致他们容忍不公平的薪酬和工作条件。我们发现，球员对进入美国职业棒球大联盟的期望有些不切实际，部分原因是管理实践鼓励了不切实际的期望。这项研究表明，面向未来的劳工意识形态是基于不切实际的期望，雇主可以通过推动这种期望来为未来的地位胁迫创造机会，从而对劳工研究做出了贡献。