Mookie Betts said Saturday that he won’t be accompanying his World Series champion Boston Red Sox on their rescheduled visit to the White House. The reigning American League MVP became the latest member of the team to either say he wasn’t going or indicate that he was considering skipping the visit, which was pushed back from February to May because of the government shutdown.
Betts did not cite President Donald Trump as his reason for staying away, as champion athletes such as members of the Golden State Warriors and Philadelphia Eagles have done. “I won’t be going there. I decided not to,” was all Betts had to say about it, according to The Boston Globe.
Betts, 26, made his comments while in New York to attend the Baseball Writers Association of America awards dinner, at which he accepted his first league MVP award and the 11th in Red Sox history. The fifth-year right fielder led Boston to a team-record 108 wins while earning his third straight Gold Glove award and leading the AL in batting average, slugging percentage and runs.
Betts’ absence will be a notable one when the Red Sox visit the White House after a May road trip to Baltimore to play the Orioles. The only other Red Sox player thus far to state publicly he won’t go has been third baseman Rafael Devers, who said earlier this month that it wasn’t related to politics.
“The opportunity was presented, and I just wasn’t compelled to go,” Devers said at the time. According to the Red Sox, attendance at the event won’t be mandatory and some other players, including shortstop Xander Bogaerts, infielder Eduardo Nunez and pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, have reportedly indicated that they’re still considering their options.
The Globe described Red Sox manager Alex Cora as “unlikely” to attend, which would mark an apparent change in his stance. “I’m going to use my platform the right way. I’m not going to embarrass anybody,” Cora, a Puerto Rico native, said in December. “Actually, I’m going to represent 4 million people from back home the right way when we go there.”
Cora had previously criticized Trump for deriding an increase in the Puerto Rican government’s official death toll from Hurricane Maria to nearly 3,000. The president tweeted in September that when he “left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths,” and that the increase “was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.”
“To be tweeting about 3,000 people and be efficient, it’s actually disrespectful for my country,” Cora said then. “We see it that way. I know probably he doesn’t feel that way. And like I said, hey man, thank you for helping us. He went down there, he did what he did. I hate talking about politics and all that, but I think this is more than politics.
“I respect him,” the manager added. “He’s the president of the United States. But I don’t agree with a lot of stuff that he says about us.”
After the Houston Astros won the 2017 World Series, two players from Puerto Rico — star shortstop Carlos Correa and veteran outfielder/designated hitter Carlos Beltran — did not accompany the team to the White House the following March. Beltran said he was disappointed in the U.S. government’s response to the hurricane, while Correa said he was using the time to arrange for another shipment of relief supplies to his ravaged territory.
A few members of the Red Sox, according to The Globe, have said they will attend the White House visit, including Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, Mitch Moreland and Brock Holt.