Former Phillies top draft pick Dylan Cozens has tough love advice for minor leaguers amidst MLB lockout
Former Philadelphia Phillies second-round pick Dylan Cozens isn’t sugarcoating it. On Thursday, he tweeted a lengthy thread full of advice and tough love for minor leaguers.
Among the highlights: you should strike or unionize, you’re being exploited, big-leaguers don’t care about you, and most of you will never make it.
In fairness, Cozens is correct. Roughly 10% of minor leaguers make it to the majors. He was one of the lucky ones.
The Phillies selected Cozens as their second-round pick in the 2012 June Amateur Draft, straight out of high school. His big-league career amounted to what’s known colloquially as a ‘cup of coffee,’ as he only played 27 games at the major-league level.
Between his June 1, 2018 debut and one game in 2019, Cozens hit .154/.267/.282 with a .549 OPS, six hits, including one home run, and one stolen base.
After being released by the Phillies during the 2019 season, he signed minor-league contracts with the Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers, but barely saw any playing time in their system and dealt with injuries. He announced his retirement from baseball in June of 2021 and is now pursuing an NFL career.
The former draft bust isn’t exactly wrong in his thread. Most major leaguers do not care about the plight of minor leaguers. Some of them do, like David Price, giving $1,000 to each Dodgers minor-leaguer when their season was canceled in 2020. Most major leaguers, the ones who aren’t superstars, are just trying to make sure they stay major leaguers.
On the one hand, everyone should care about people suffering, especially if they know firsthand what it’s like. On the other hand, it is not the major leaguers’ responsibility to fix what MLB and the owners keep breaking and intend to leave shattered.