Dodgers News: Alex Wood lays into Mark Teixeira over Twitter

In the ongoing discussion between the MLB owners and the players over further salary concessions to get the game going again, things are getting testy between players and fans, including Alex Wood of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As Major League Baseball and the MLBPA continue to discuss plans to get the 2020 season started after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown at the start of the season, there continues to be a pretty big rift between the two as to how much should be conceded in terms of player salaries. The latest player to put forth his two cents is Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Alex Wood.

At the heart of the matter is whether players should be willing to accept a revenue share plan for the 2020 season, rather than a proration of their guaranteed salaries. According to reports, the proposed share would be roughly 49% of game revenues generated for the proposed 82-game schedule. Meanwhile, the players are standing by the fact that they have already negotiated in good faith, having agreed to major pay-cuts for the games already missed and feel that the roughly 50% of salary losses they’ve already endured were the agreed-upon course.

The players want to stand by their current agreement. The owners meanwhile feel they have more to lose by playing without fans AND paying out prorated salaries instead of enacting a revenue share.

All of this stands to derail a potential return to play that all sides want. As we’re getting closer to the return of the game, it stands to create a potential public opinion outcry among fans that see this as a battle between millionaires and billionaires, while the rest of the world is fighting to maintain their jobs and spirits in the wake of the virus. Baseball has a chance to return a sense of normalcy to the world, but having it fall apart over a money squabble will only further hamper the game.

And that is the part of the discussion where Alex Wood decided to get involved.

Former New York Yankees first baseman, and current ESPN commentator, Mark Teixeira told the network on Tuesday (h/t Brendan Kuty of NJ.com) that “I would rather make pennies on the dollar and give hope to people and play baseball than not make anything and lose an entire year off of their career.”

It seems to be a fairly innocuous comment, but Wood nonetheless took offense and went to Twitter with his own retort.

“I refuse to judge someone I don’t really know off of one comment but damn this statement is just so stupid lol.”

Now, I am sure that Wood meant well, to some degree, by taking the union stance here. He has to walk the line the rest of the players do and make sure they convey a consistent message of solidarity on the issue. However, Teixeira was speaking on the court of public opinion and what getting the game back on the field would mean to the fans. If that meant that taking less to get the game going and give hope to the people, he would have been all for it.

Alex Wood disagreed, and despite being a Dodger or a voice of the union, he’s going to find it hard to gain support in that argument by going to the public via Twitter. Whether or not the union is right or wrong here, the arguments over money are not going to be won in the public eye, and both parties have a lot to lose by not getting this addresses not only sooner but in a private setting. The only part that needs to be made public is when and if the final decision is to play ball.

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The Dodgers inked Alex Wood to a one-year, incentive-laden deal this past winter. The team is hoping for a strong bounce-back season after a down year in Cincinnati.