David Price retweets post highlighting racial divide in Red Sox’ White House visit, calls it ‘insensitive’

David Price. Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press/Associated Press

Red Sox pitcher David Price retweeted a post from Athletic writer Steve Buckley highlighting a racial divide among the Red Sox players who have said they will or won’t attend this week’s White House visit.

And although some read the tweet as Price supporting Buckley’s statement, it was actually the opposite.

Buckley tweeted on Monday that “basically it’s the white Sox who’ll be going” to the event featuring President Trump on Thursday. Buckley was responding to confirmation from manager Alex Cora that he would be skipping the event.

Price tweeted “I just feel like more than 38k should see this tweet. . .,” an apparent reference to the number of Buckley’s Twitter followers. Price’s Twitter following currently approaches 2 million.

I just feel like more than 38k should see this tweet... https://t.co/BtbK0DNPQc

— David Price (@DAVIDprice24) May 6, 2019

Prior to the Red Sox-Orioles game in Camden Yards on Monday night, Price clarified the intention behind his retweet.

“It was an insensitive tweet that needs to be seen by more people. That’s what it was,” said Price.

The Twitter posts come as Red Sox are scheduled to be honored at the White House on Thursday following the team’s 2018 World Series championship.

In comments published Sunday, Cora told a newspaper in Puerto Rico that he decided not to attend after discussions with his friends and family.

“Puerto Rico is very important to me. During the winter I spent a lot of time back home, visiting my family and friends. Unfortunately, we are still struggling, still fighting. Some people still lack basic necessities, others remain without electricity and many homes and schools are in pretty bad shape almost a year and a half after Hurricane María struck,” Cora told El Nuevo Dia.

Cora’s decision reflected a racial divide among the team: The vast majority of players who said they would attend the event are white, while the players who plan to skip the event are all men of color.

In addition to Cora, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley, Jr., Rafael Devers, Christian Vazquez, and Hector Velazquez have said they will not go.

J.D. Martinez, Chris Sale, Mitch Moreland, and Steve Pearce have said they would go to the White House, as have Brock Holt, Matt Barnes, Brandon Workman, Ryan Brasier, Nathan Eovaldi, Brian Johnson, and Heath Hembree.

Red Sox owner John Henry, who also owns the Globe, and team chairman Tom Werner have said they would attend. So have team president Sam Kennedy and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.

The team was originally scheduled to appear at the White House in February, but the trip was rescheduled due to the government shutdown.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect David Price’s stance on the post he retweeted.