Dodgers, Yankees Top MLB Player Poll on Team Reputations, A's, Rockies Voted Worst
Clubs with some of the lowest payrolls in MLB also received some of the fewest votes on The Athletic's recent poll about which teams have bad reputations among players.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox and Athletics combined to receive the most "bad reputation" votes from players, according to The Athletic's Dennis Lin.
The A's, who are playing the 2025 season in a minor-league ballpark about one-third the size of a standard stadium, received the most negative votes. Out of 115 respondents, 39 named the A's as a team with a negative reputation.
One anonymous player said he knew someone who had been traded to the A's organization as a minor leaguer and didn't like the accommodations or food he was offered, per Lin.
All five of those clubs reportedly most negatively perceived by polled players rank among the bottom nine payrolls in MLB, according to Spotrac.
One player told Lin that he had heard Marlins players sometimes ate at Subway while traveling for road games.
"It’s little stuff like that where it’s like, we’re in the big leagues. Cheap stuff. It’s a billion-dollar industry. Let’s be a little better than that," the player told Lin.
When asked about clubs with good reputations among players, the Los Angeles Dodgers dominated with 82 votes out of 126 respondents. The New York Yankees came in second with 40 votes.
Players who spoke to Lin about the Dodgers praised the club's busy offseason following their 2024 World Series win as well as their player development pipeline, while mentioning the Yankees' accommodations and food.
“Everybody who goes to the Yankees absolutely loves it there," one player told Lin.
One poll outlier in terms of payroll was the Cleveland Guardians, who are ranked 23rd among MLB payrolls by Spotrac but received 17 votes as a club with a "good reputation."
One player told Lin: "The Guardians make players, especially pitchers, better."
The player poll was conducted over 2.5 months between spring training and early May, according to The Athletic.
