In 2009, the winner of the Young Award Zack Grein Award became a viral after Yahoo Sports said that he was boycotting Chipotle’s Guacamole.
“I think $ 1.50 is already quite damn high. So they changed it to $ 1.80, and I will never have Guacamole again,” Greinke said. “It’s not about Guacamole itself. I just don’t want to let them win.”
Fifteen years later, the (small) side of Chipotle’s Guacamole is $ 2.65 and Greinke’s ideas remain among MLB players with common sentiment.
“Grein was a kick for a while,” said Reds Scott Barlow, a former Greinkee teammate. “It’s a principle.”
What are MLB players cheap about? Well, then Athletic He asked dozens of them on the question in the last year, the answer is … almost everything.
“It’s such an old cliché,” Cleveland Steven Kwan said, “you will remain rich because you are cheap.”
Some players were struggling to frame the question. “I don’t like C-Slovo,” said Jug and TJ McFarland. “I use frugal.”
You are a judge.
Whit Merrifield, Free Agent: It is fun to play music in the clubhouse and someone has a phone connected and comes advertising. The guys will shout, “Are you a big leaguer that earns millions of dollars and you can’t pay $ 11.99 for Spotify?!”
Ryan McMahon, Rockies: My wife is on her cousin Spotify, so I use it.
Jake Cronenworth, Padres: I don’t buy any music. It’s a pretty unnecessary purchase. I like to drive silence. Total silence.
This, two Padres teammates who heard the interview, tell Cronenworth, characteristic of psychopath.
Zach Neto, Angels: I use Apple Music, but I’m still on my (cheaper) student account. Don’t call it Apple Music. It’s the only application I pay for.
Hayden Birdsong, Giants: I won’t pay for any applications. I’m on my mom’s spotify.
Tyler Glasnow, Dodgers: There’s something about (buying an application). I just don’t want to give them $ 2.
Barlow: If I have a game app and says you can upgrade without ads, I won’t do it.
Glasnow: It is probably also worth it. It’s just rooted in my brain – like no, I’m not doing it.
Although he was divisional rivals last season, the former Yankees jug Lou Trivino was on Netflix’s Orioles Relier Cole Irvin.
Tanner Scott, Dodgers: Certainly we are still on my wife’s Netflix family.
Evan Carter, Rangers: I am on Netflix my parents and my parents’ parents.
McMahon: If you have someone else login, you are all set up.
McFarland: Only about two years ago I was on the plan of a family mobile phone. And I didn’t even pay my parents, it was free. In the end, my dad is like, “You’re in big leagues, time to get your own s—.”
Dansby Swanson, Cubs: I also had that moment. I needed a new phone and it was a good time to switch the phone number. I was glad, “Okay, it’s time to step out of the parents’ plan.”
Tristan Beck, Giants: That day is also coming for me. But I will try to avoid it as long as it can.
Matt Strahm, Phillies: I won’t just buy new clothes because I want. I need need Clothing to buy clothes.
Joe Musgrove, Padres: Do you know how to return to school shopping at elementary school and get several pairs of jeans and a few T -shirts that will last a year? I’m still the same.
McFarland: I come with shoes literally crumbling – the sole came. My wife was like, “That’s enough.” She took them and fired them.
Derek Law, Nationals: My wife is like, “You have to get a new shirt,” and I’m glad “ehh, I’m good.”
Ryan Mountcastle, Orioles: I never need new clothes.
Mike Yastrzemski, Giants: I don’t buy clothes, I don’t buy shoes. I am very strange about things. I will be glad, “I want it,” and then turn around about 10 minutes later and I will be like, “Well, what will change when I buy it? Nothing.” So I am glad, “I think I do not need it,” and I move on.
Strahm: I am very simple and cheap with clothes. In my wardrobe is black, white and gray, just simple T -shirts.
Craig Kimbrel, Braves: I will wear things.
Kwan: Socks, pads, I will go to the end.
Musgrove: I will wear it until I can wear it anymore.
MountCastle: Until he literally has no holes.
Kwan: I had a pillow for 10 years that my wife was completely disgusted. It’s like “You can get a new one!” And I was like “Why? I don’t need a new one.” One day she took off the coverage and said, “You have to look at it, it’s disgusting.” And it was. In the end I threw it off my first year. But it got into the Great League.
Seth Lugo, Royals: I hate paying for transport.
Austin Riley, Braves: Something was – it was a hunting gadget, it was like $ 6 and transport was $ 8. And I thought, “I’m going to buy it somewhere.”
Jesse Chavez, Braves: And “processing fee”.… Processing? Where did it come from?
McFarland: When you use Doordash and it’s a few bucks to give you food, I will tell your wife: “We are by no means picking up.”
Lugo: Go for yourself. I don’t contain things (to be delivered).
McFarland: Sure, it’s 15-20 minutes to pick it up and probably spend the money for gas, but (delivery) is something I’m not right, I’m wasting money.
Jesse Winker, Mets: I feel that Uber’s prices have been out of control, so if I can’t go somewhere, I’ll go a scooter for a fraction of the price.
Clay Holmes, Mets: I’m cheap about years. You and the team are so much flying with the team that you never think about it, then you go on book flights in offseason and it is like, “I have to pay to fly?”
Jameson Taillon, Cubs: I have difficult to pay for other legs. I can afford to fly the first class or in the output row, but I feel that I am punished for being tall, so I refuse to upgrade my place.
TRISTON McKENZIE, GUARDIANS: I look at first -class places, but I never buy them.
Matt Vierling, Tigers: I’m still driving a car from college. It’s Ford Escape 2012. It broke on the highway on me (in September).
Birdsong: I have Ford Fusion 2015.
Paul Sewald, Rangers: I had my first car, Toyota 4runner, for 13 years in large leagues and upgraded only in 2021, because we got pregnant and needed a larger car.
Four times: I was driving an even older car. (Escape) was used when I got it; He had 65,000 miles. Now it’s like 172,000 and we are still rolling. I’ll try to go for the next year. I got all of them in my family and said that It’s not safe, you should get another car. And I’m just like, “Not yet. I’ll ride it until they die.”
Birdsong: I was the sixth round, I would leave it until it breaks, and it’s pretty close. He wears 140-150,000 miles.
Sewald: Now I have a Ford expedition. It’s not a fantasy. It’s almost a dad car.
Birdsong: Maybe I’ll get another Prius.
Kwan: I still don’t own a car. I rent one and do some (promotional things) for society and they pay for it. It saves a lot of money.
Kyle Gibson, Orioles: When I was in college, my junior year (2009), I needed a 60 -degree wedge. So I went to Walmart and bought a lap of $ 19.99. I still have the club and I still have to buy a new one because I love it. The grip is torn badly, the club shaft is completely rusty. Whenever I am golf with someone new, he sees me how he pulls him out of the bag and goes, “What are you doing?”
Yastrzmski: I have the same clubs I had four years old I got for free anyway. I called my agent because I cracked the driver’s face and said, “Hey, you know someone who can send me the driver? I don’t care what it is.” I didn’t want to buy it. … I recently bought a new putter. It took me a year and a half to pull the trigger on it.
Chavez stayed with the lake during the break All-Star with a teammate Aj Minter and their families. There were eight people there and filled the wheelchair, mainly fruit and vegetables. It was $ 600.
Chavez: I’m also a big beater in a grocery store. … Where does it come from?
Law: Foods are crazy.
McFarland: I look at the shop and it’s like, “Okay, if it’s 60 cents less, I get a general brand.”
Emilio Pagàn, Reds: Although it is 40 cents cheaper.
McKenzie, Guardians: If I need a medicine, I certainly get the target brand Ibuprofen.
Law: If strawberries say they are two for $ 7, I get two strawberries because I feel I save money. I am me? Probably not, because now they made me buy two.
Jake Diekman, Agent FREE: The second day in the self -conference I was glad, where are all the bags? And the lady said you had to buy them. It was wild. But I bought only two.
Law: Most of the time you forget the bags you should bring. And it’s like damn, I don’t pay 10 cents.
Kwan: I don’t like paying for refreshments. I have my little bag of Lulu (Lemon) and every day it’s like a trick or treatment (in the clubhouse). It usually spills the edge. I have free waters and I totally empty these sweet Thai chili almonds.
BLINK: The price of water went too high. We get used just because we are able to catch water (in the clubhouse). Then in offseason you go buy water and are you like, “This water is so expensive?”
Dustin May, Dodgers: I am not saying that I do not load (on free waters). Certainly yes.
Neto: I will not pay for water bottles. Before I come here, I take a few houses with me to drink.
McFarland: The same boys who came out with tons of free water bottles from here have no problem spending $ 25,000 on Rolex.
Manny Machado, Parents: I will not spend money on wine (in a restaurant), which charge you 800 percent (brand). I just go home and drink my own wine or take my own wine.
Pagan: The longest time my diet included a lot of taco bell. Crunch Wrap Supreme is hard to beat. That helped my cheap thinking, but now I’m getting old and I can’t eat it so much.
Machado: I like wine, but the value must be there. I’m a value person.
Diekman: You have to go to Costco, wine seller 1 in the world. I feel that everyone who is trying to save should go to Costco, catch a hot dog and get some wine.
Kwan: You have to buy in bulk. I don’t play to get toothpaste five or six times. I get a 10-pack and leave it out.
Logan O’Hoppe, Angels: I hate me, but even if it’s a dollar, I refuse to pay for it Athletic. Although my name is in it, my ego gets in my way and I don’t want to pay for it.
(Editor’s note: Sign up for only $ 1/week for four weeks, logan.)
McKenzie: I finally signed up. (Rangers defeated the writer Zack) Meisel got me. He was like, it’s just a dollar! But I stayed a little.
O’Hoppe: I don’t pay that damn dollar. It’s a principle. I will read the first paragraph in front of Paywall. So I think I’m too cheap to read this article.
– AthleticKatie Woo, Dennis Lin, David O’Brien and Patrick Mooney contributed to this story.
(Illustrations: Dan Goldfarb / Athletic;; Photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
