Tampa Bay Rays: David Price makes penny-pinching billionaires look bad

There hasn’t been a lot of news on the Tampa Bay Rays over the past few months, let alone good news. Rays’ legend David Price has given us something positive to discuss.

Tampa Bay Rays pitching legend David Price has stepped up to the plate for Dodgers’ minor-league players. Price plans to pay each player not on the 40-man roster a $1,000 in the month of June.

This news comes at a time when many minor leaguers are either scraping by on the $400/week stipend they are receiving from teams or finding out their payments are being cut off.

The Oakland A’s recently announced they would be suspending minor league player payments, in addition to several other cost-cutting measures. The Athletics have also been unable to pay their annual rent payment of $1.2 million for RingCentral Coliseum. They cited the pandemic and inability to generate revenue with the use of the stadium.

Oakland A’s owner John Fisher, whose parents Donald and Doris Fisher founded GAP, is worth more than $2 billion.

David Price is currently on a seven-year, $217 million contract.

The Dodgers still plan to pay their minor leaguers the $400 stipend for the month of June while teams like the Marlins and Padres have already committed to paying their minor league players through August.

Minor leaguers face many uncertainties right now. Their options are limited as they are still under contract, but in the case of the Oakland A’s players, not getting paid.

David Price is making a gesture of generosity to his baseball brethren while the billionaires are pinching pennies.

Meanwhile, Juan Toribio of MLB.com reported the Tampa Bay Rays have committed to paying their minor league players the $400 stipend through the end of June.

As far as July, they will cross that bridge when they get there. For minor-league players, it’s about crossing bridges one at a time.

As the hope for a minor-league season appears to be dissipating, hundreds of players were cut across the league. The Rays cut about 20-25 players, themselves.

Teams said these are low-level players that would likely have been cut after spring training.

Amid all of this uncertainty and gloom, it’s nice to see David Price step up and dig into his own pockets to help out the guys that down on the farm.