David Price of LA Dodgers to pay $1,000 to players from his pocket? ‘Greedy’ $270B worth owners slammed
With the coronavirus pandemic, the last seven months have been tough for Minor League Baseball. With several businesses shutting down, MLB will shut its operations and will reportedly eliminate 40-plus minor league teams and there will be no minor league season.
Players will have to bear the brunt of the decision as the baseball shutdown has already been tough on minor leaguers, who are reportedly paid (or rather, underpaid) only during the regular season. In the latest update, while The Athletics announced they won't pay minor leaguers after May 31, the Rangers, Padres, White Sox, Braves, Mariners, Marlins, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Mets and Astros disclosed "they will continue their players at least through the end of June." Meanwhile, The Marlins, Padres and Mariners will pay the players through the end of August.
Amid all the ruckus, David is reportedly paying $1,000 to players from his pocket. A tweet that was shared widely on Twitter said, "David Price will pay out of his money $1,000 during the month of June to each minor league player in Dodgers system (40-man roster not included)," according to multiple sources. The tweet further read, "Beautiful act if we count that Price hasn't played yet in MLB with @Dodgers. RESPECT."
No sooner it was revealed, the Internet can't stop talking about it. While many praised him, others pointed out how Los Angeles Dodgers' owners Guggenheim Baseball Management — which includes Mark Walter, Magic Johnson, Stan Kasten, Peter Guber, Bobby Patton, Todd Boehly — along with Billie Jean King, Ilana Kloss, Alan Smolinisky & Robert L. Plummer could have taken the same step.
Bringing their net worth out in the open, one Twitter user posted, "Guggenheim Baseball Management owns the Dodgers and is run by Mark Walter, the CEO of Guggenheim Partners which manages $270 BILLION of assets. David Price's entire 7 years $217 million deal is worth less than 1% of that, and he's literally doing more for minor leaguers."
"Good on David Price but the Dodgers' principal owner has a net worth of around $3 billion. Embarrassing that players essentially are bailing out literal multi-billionaire owners," one tweet read while another said, "David Price's total career earnings in baseball are less than 1/1000th of the combined net worth of the group that owns the Los Angeles Dodgers."
"David Price isn’t a billionaire. Owners are the greedy ones, stop blaming players," one said and another posted, "Billionaires: we can’t afford $400/week, David Price: hold my beer." Another tweet read, "David Price paying Dodgers minor leaguers more than the Dodgers."
The big question remains: Why couldn't the owners shell out the same amount of money? The pandemic has had a huge effect on the game after more than 40 minor league teams have been eliminated and in the long run, would anyone ever dream to be a baseball player at all?