Heyward: 'There's naturally going to be a fear in minorities' to speak up

Jason Heyward says it's tough for MLB players of African-American descent to speak up about racial inequality because there's so few of them in the sport.

“There are less of us. There are less black people in baseball," the Chicago Cubs outfielder told the Chicago Sun Times' Gordon Wittenmyer. "So there’s naturally going to be fear in that. There’s naturally going to be a fear in minorities when everybody has a different route to get there.”

The percentage of African-Americans in baseball in the late 1970s once reached 28 percent. For much of the last decade, that figure has hung around the eight-percent range.

So when outspoken Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said "baseball is a white man's sport," Heyward had a hard time disagreeing.

“I know what A.J. said. A.J. speaks his mind,” Heyward said. “If anybody’s going to speak their mind it’s Adam Jones or somebody with a contract, and they’re All-Stars and have Gold Gloves. Or it’s going to be (Colin) Kaepernick, who’s been to a Super Bowl.”

Related: Orioles' Jones says 'Baseball is a white man's sport'

Jones had also said that African-American players who speak up in MLB would risk putting their careers in jeopardy.

“Just with what A.J.’s saying, that’s what I think it is: you don’t want to give anybody any extra reason to take something away from you that you worked hard for, and that’s why so many people are not going to protest in this sport, or (certain) other jobs," Heyward added.