use my cellphone<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nWhich organizations have bad reputations among players?<\/p>\n
On Opening Day, four of the majors\u2019 five lowest payrolls belonged to the Athletics, Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins and Pirates. Not coincidentally, those four clubs joined the Rockies in receiving the most mentions when we polled players on the sport\u2019s least reputable organizations, allowing multiple answers in each response.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the poor ones,\u201d one player said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no poor ones,\u201d another pointed out.<\/p>\n
Of the 115 players who responded, 39 named the relatively nomadic Athletics as an organization with a bad reputation. Coming off an all-time bad season, the White Sox received the second-most mentions, with 31. The Marlins and Rockies tied for an ignominious third place. They were followed, in order, by the Rockies, Pirates, Angels and resourceful but frugal Rays.<\/p>\n
One American League player, asked to name at least one team he wouldn\u2019t want to play for, settled on the White Sox. He added: \u201cAt the end of the day, you\u2019re in the big leagues. How can you complain when you\u2019re in the big leagues? I don\u2019t think there\u2019d be anybody I wouldn\u2019t want to play for.\u201d<\/p>\n
A fellow member of the AL provided a similar perspective while pointing out the unusual circumstances of the Athletics and another somewhat transient club.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe major leagues is the major leagues, but it\u2019s got to be tough to be on the Rays or the A\u2019s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In their own wordsOn the Athletics<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause they\u2019re cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to be playing in Sacramento.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a buddy who was traded to the A\u2019s as a minor leaguer. \u2026 He went to Oakland and said the way they were fed, the places they stayed were just not good.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Marlins<\/p>\n
\u201cMiami has no direction, and all their prospects are 17, so they\u2019re seven years away from doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard specific things about them getting, like, Subway sandwiches on the road sometimes. It\u2019s little stuff like that where it\u2019s like, we\u2019re in the big leagues. Cheap stuff. It\u2019s a billion-dollar industry. Let\u2019s be a little better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Rockies<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not trying to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard the player development isn\u2019t very good. They\u2019re stuck in the past and don\u2019t do a whole lot for their guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never understand what they\u2019re doing as an organization. They\u2019ve been bad for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the White Sox<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a dumpster fire through and through.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey lost the most games in history last season. I mean, why would you want to join that team right now?\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Pirates<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Pirates give players resources, but their owner just has zero interest in winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Angels<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing top to bottom. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which organizations have good reputations among players?<\/p>\n
For all their preternatural talent and uncommon work ethic, major leaguers are just like us. Who doesn\u2019t love winning and getting paid handsomely while you\u2019re at it? In 2024, the Los Angeles Dodgers combined those two things better than anyone else. It\u2019s early, but they remain favored to win it all in 2025. And this spring, 82 of 126 respondents named baseball\u2019s foremost juggernaut as a team with a good reputation.<\/p>\n
The New York Yankees, last year\u2019s postseason runner-up, were second with 40 mentions. Like the Dodgers, they have long paired a rich tradition with a wealth of resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeams that want to win, they give everything to the players,\u201d one respondent said.<\/p>\n
Said another: \u201cYou want to be where they spend money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also receiving at least 17 mentions were the Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets and Cleveland Guardians, who don\u2019t spend a lot but, like the Rays, have a reputation for maximizing their expenditures. These teams were followed by the Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, Houston Astros and Rays.<\/p>\n
In their own wordsOn the Dodgers<\/p>\n
\u201cYou win the World Series, and you go out and do what they did to add to it? That\u2019s what professional sports \u2014 not just baseball \u2014 is supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dodgers take care of players and their families, but they also excel on the player development side.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dodgers stand out. Everyone wants to win. Everyone wants to get paid. You go there, looks like that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Yankees<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Yankees and Dodgers are the gold standards for players. Accommodations. Always in on free agents. Home stadium is always packed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey take care of their guys. The food there is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody who goes to the Yankees absolutely loves it there.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Braves<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a relaxed, old-school feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Braves do everything just as good as the Yankees. The way they take care of the players, players\u2019 families, the way they treat you like you\u2019re the best in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Cubs<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers I know in Chicago, they talk about how well they treat families.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are just about keeping traditions alive. They love their history and their legacies and try to continue that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Mets<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best family room in the league, by far, is the Mets. The Cohen family put a bunch of money into that because they know how important it is to take care of family.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Guardians<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Guardians make players, especially pitchers, better.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Red Sox<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir medical staff is top-notch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note: Some player quotes included in this story have been lightly edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb \/ The Athletic; Photo of Oliver Marmol: Scott Taetsch \/ Getty Images; Bruce Bochy: Samuel Corum \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For most major leaguers, the ground beneath their feet rarely feels stable. Eight- and nine-figure contracts are the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2317,2111,371,374,479,2318,2319,2320,1230,372,373,2321,2322,2323,2324,2325,2326,363,1189,369,2327,480,2240,2328,2329,481,99,1794,1231,974,2330,364,2331],"class_list":["post-21952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-houston-astros","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-miami-marlins","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-oakland-athletics","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-texas-rangers","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-washington-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}