U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., is backing a bill that would prevent Minor League Baseball players from being paid overtime wages, an effort he said is aimed at preserving professional baseball in cities across the country.

Major League Baseball, which pays the salaries of minor league players, would struggle to maintain its habit of drafting 1,700 players each year if overtime pay became mandatory, Guthrie said.

“If you have to pay more for every player, they probably won’t draft 1,700 a year,” he said. “If you start treating baseball players like hourly employees, you have fewer baseball players and fewer teams.”

This in turn, would decrease the opportunities players have to advance to the major leagues, for families to attend professional baseball games in their areas and the opportunities for local economic growth that often comes with having a baseball stadium, he said.

“Lots of cities have ballparks that local economies are built around,” he said.

The bill calls for amending the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes a minimum wage and overtime pay eligibility, to exempt minor league baseball players, he said.

Guthrie said he got involved with supporting the bill when an attorney representing Minor League Baseball asked him to.

The bill’s introduction has resulted in a wave of backlash, with publications including USA Today, SB Nation and the Houston Press decrying the legislation as a measure that cuts costs at the players’ expense.

According to Guthrie, few of the responses in opposition to SAPA mention a California lawsuit in which former minor league players are suing Major League Baseball for violating wage and overtime laws.

According to the Department of Labor’s webpage, most people making less than $23,660 per year qualify for overtime pay. There are some exceptions such as baseball players, artists and others, but those standards are set to change at the end of the year.

Monthly salaries for minor leaguers range from $1,150 for short season teams to $2,700 for third-year players on a AAA team, according to sports law attorney Jeff Blank’s sports law blog.

Hot Rods general manager Eric Leach, said the Hot Rods are in favor of SAPA.

The bill simply clarifies a legal exemption Major League Baseball already has to the Fair Labor Standards Act, he said.

Bus trips that take players to games in other cities have been a hangup, Leach said, with some players saying they should get paid for their time on the bus.

“When I come to my job, I’m not getting paid for my trip to and from work,” he said.

Many communities like Bowling Green would be unable to support professional baseball without Major League Baseball subsidizing minor league teams, an activity that could be jeopardized if the major leagues are ever required to pay overtime wages, Leach said.

“The trickle-down, the concern is that if the major leagues have to pay overtime and their costs double or triple, they might shut down some levels of the leagues,” he said. “You start to get concerned about what gets eliminated and what doesn’t.”

Despite these concerns, Leach said he doubts the Hot Rods would be shut down for these reasons because the team and Bowling Green Ballpark are fairly new.

Rick Vaughn, spokesman for the Tampa Bay Rays, which pays the salaries of Hot Rods players, said the Rays have no comment on SAPA.

Michael Teevan, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, had no comment but provided a prepared statement via email.

While the statement doesn’t explicitly provide a stance on SAPA, it said minor league players, like artists and musicians, have been exempted from the Fair Labor Standards Act since its passage in 1938.

“It is simply impractical to treat professional athletes as hourly employees whose pay may be determined by such things as how long their games last, when they choose to arrive at the ballpark, how much they practice or condition to stay in shape and how many promotional or charitable appearances they make,” the statement said.

The release also said that, with some exceptions, being a minor league baseball player “is not a career but a short-term seasonal apprenticeship in which the player either advances to the major leagues or pursues another career.”

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., who co-sponsored the bill, withdrew her support on June 30.

In a statement, she said “concerns about the bill,” which were not specified, were brought to her attention, leading to the withdrawal of her support.

“While it’s important to sustain minor league baseball teams that provide economic support to small communities across America, I cannot support legislation that does so at the expense of the players,” she said in the statement.

Bustos supports raising the minimum wage and the right to collective bargaining for fair wages, the statement said.

“I believe that Major League Baseball can and should pay young, passionate minor league players a fair wage for the work they do,” she said in the statement.

— Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.