A's owner John Fisher has reversed course and decided to pay the team's minor leaguers.
Oakland had been the only MLB team to stop paying its minor leaguers during the league's shutdown due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. That decision was met with significant backlash, and played a role in Fisher reversing it.
"I changed my mind after spending a lot of time talking to our team,” Fisher told the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser on Friday. “I concluded I’d made a mistake."
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Fisher apologized for his error in judgment. Moving forward, all A's minor leaguers will receive weekly stipends through the rest of what would have been the minor league season.
"I’ve listened to our fans and others, and there is no question that this is the right thing to do,” Fisher said. “We clearly got this decision wrong. These players represent our future, and we will immediately begin paying our minor league players. I take responsibility and I’m making it right."
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Additionally, Fisher announced the A's are establishing an emergency assistance fund for furloughed employees. The A's furloughed more than half of their employees through Oct. 31 on Monday, more than 90 of whom came from baseball operations.
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"We have a lot of employees who have been incredibly loyal for many, many, many years,” Fisher said. “It felt like the right thing to do was to set up a fund to support them."