MLB Player Poll: Oakland Athletics have ‘worst rep’ among players

Jun 10, 2024, 11:42 AM | Updated: Jul 3, 2024, 5:29 am

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 13: Oakland Athletics fans display signs during a reverse boycott game a...

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Lead Editor & Kings Beat Writer

The Athletic‘s MLB writing staff published its yearly Player Poll on Monday morning, as more than 100 players were interviewed anonymously to give their “unfiltered takes” on some of the most prominent storylines, players, teams, and more around the league.

As the Oakland Athletics continue to play its final season in the Bay Area, players around the league cast their votes for the A’s in a particular category that the franchise surely is not proud of:

“What organizations have bad reputations among players?”

For an Athletics team that has struggled both on and off the field in recent years, the organization has received immense criticism over the past three months following the news that Oakland will relocate to Sacramento in 2025 as they wait for a new stadium to be finished in Las Vegas.

The decision to move a Major League product like the Athletics into Sutter Health Park, home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, has not sat well with current MLB players.

Of the 79 players who responded, 40 named the beleaguered Oakland Athletics as a team with a bad rep.

In their own words

“I mean, have you seen what they’re doing to the city of Oakland and their fans?”

“It doesn’t seem like they want to win.”

“I’ve heard Oakland is pretty rough. Sacramento for three years? I’ve been to that ballpark before. They can’t find something better?”

The Athletic‘s 2024 MLB Player Poll – June 10, 2024

More on the A’s move to Las Vegas and Sacramento

Just after the start of the 2024 MLB season, the A’s and Sacramento Kings announced that the Athletics will call Sutter Health Park home from 2025-28 with an option for a fourth year.

Sutter Health Park is the current home of the San Francisco Giants Triple-A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats, located in West Sacramento.

Last November, Major League Baseball unanimously approved the Athletics relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas. The team plans to build a $1.5 billion, nine-acre stadium where the Tropicana Hotel currently stands.

The ballpark, which was granted $380 in public funding for construction in the summer of 2023, could open as early as 2028 if everything goes according to plan.