It's not suspicious, nor unprecedented. It is at best unproven, and at worst, totally false. They are trying to make sure more people don't kill themselves following the advice of this President who doesn't care about them.
Something interesting here, apparently the Sox and Yankees haven't committed to paying their MiLB players for the rest of the season so far.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/how-each-mlb-team-plans-to-pay-minor-leaguers-in-2020/