Rockies outfielder Ian Desmond used a long and candid Instagram post to announce that he was choosing not to restart MLB.
The outfielder who became the fourth MLB player to skip the 2020 season on Monday, cited feeling uncomfortable with the risks surrounding the coronavirus and the need to be with his young family.
“With a pregnant wife and four young children who have a lot of questions about what’s going on in the world, home is where I need to be now,” wrote Desmond, who would be losing about $ 405,000 in pro rata wages for not playing. “Home to my wife, Chelsey. Home to help. Start to guide. At home to answer questions from my three older children about the coronavirus, civil rights, and life. At home to be her father.
In the post, Desmond, who is biracial, also touched on the murder of George Floyd, the issue of race and social inequality in the United States, something he believes baseball is not immune to.
“In clubs we have racist, sexist, homophobic jokes or outright problems,” Desmond wrote. “We have traps. We have a top-down minority problem. An African American GM. Two African American managers. Less than 8% of black players. There are no black majority team owners.
Desmond, 34, joins Ryan Zimmerman and Joe Ross of the Nationals and Mike Leake of the Diamondbacks as the first players to say they won’t play in 2020. He hit .255 with 20 home runs in 140 games last season for Colorado.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has made this baseball season a risk that I am not comfortable with,” Desmond wrote.
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