The Arizona Republic's DBacks beat writer, Bob McManaman, ran Arizona managing general partner, Ken Kendrick's remarks about why they wish to withhold Jason Grimsley's remaining salary on Diamondblog on the paper's website.
The notes appear to be dumped in raw form as there are some misspellings and other typos.
The end of the interview was interesting.
Kendrick said Grimsley probably should pay the Diamondbacks back some of his salary, given the circumstances, although the team isn't likely to try to ask for that to happen.
"What he's really asking us to do if he files a grievance, is asking us to pay him for not performing when the reason he isn't performing is because he was a cheater and has acknowledged his cheating for a long period of time. It's totally illogical to me how someone should be compensated under those circumstances."
That's wonderful. It's like Vince Vaughn is advising Kendrick on his negotiating stance. Really the only fair thing to do here is for the D'backs to confiscate Grimsley's house, and turn it into a Museum of Shame. And Kendrick should get to sleep with his wife.
The sad part is that the DBacks likely don't owe that much money to Grimsley (relatively speaking). His salary was $825,000 and 1/3 of that should have been paid already.
Meanwhile, they keep writing big checks to Russ Ortiz.
I think the hard-nosed stance that Arizona management is taking in this case is interesting. It seems to me that they're only talking as tough as they are because Grimsley is a marginal major leaguer. Can you imagine the Giants accusing Bonds of "no less than stealing" if he were to admit to steroid/HGH use? Look at the Yankees and Giambi. The Orioles and Palmeiro. I assume Grimsley will file the greivance - will his odds of winning have anything to do with his stature as a player? How many other players will be watching the outcome closely?
Maybe the out of court settlement will be that Grimsley gets the rest of his money, but as a contract killer with just one target. I'd kill Russ Ortiz for $550K.
When Grimsley signed with the D'backs he almost certainly misrepresented himself as a clean, ready to play major leaguer. It's understandable for Kendrick to be unhappy, to put it mildly, that Grimsley misled him, and properly feels Grimsley stole from the team. Also, Kendrick must be upset about Grimsley creating a highly distracted team atmosphere, and they've now got a giant ball and chain to carry around for the foreseeable future.
He took a physical before getting the contract, right? Is it even legal to ask potential employees if they take steroids? If the contract he signed had a no 'roids clause, Kendrick would have said so.
If MLB wants to fine him the rest of his salary, in addition to three consecutive life suspensions (or whatever), I wouldn't care that much. But this story smells like a PR stunt. We, the people who benefitted (as little as we did) from this man's cheating, insist that we are victims of his treachery, too. Now that we cannot possible get anything out of him.
Even if Kendrick felt that way in the emotion of the moment, it was a stupid thing to say. Set aside the real possibility that there are other PED-using players on the team, as taking such a hard-nosed stance pretty much precludes any "we still support you" statements. The problem is that, ostensibly, Grimsley was cheating in order to improve his play and help the team win, and therefore keep his MLB salary. Looks to me like ownership is playing the victim to try to dodge any responsibility.
There are a lot of things players can do that tick off the ownership. And it's been pretty hard to get a contract invalidated.
Players have lied (or tried to) about how injuries were incurred (yes, I'm looking at you Mr. Kent), players have taken cocaine (very long list) and they all got paid barring a suspension from the Commissioner's office. The Rockies tried to invalidate Denny Neagle's contract because he got arrested for solicitation of a prostitute. That didn't work.
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Wow.
Meanwhile, they keep writing big checks to Russ Ortiz.
Didn't Lasorda say the same thing about Darryl Strawberry?
If MLB wants to fine him the rest of his salary, in addition to three consecutive life suspensions (or whatever), I wouldn't care that much. But this story smells like a PR stunt. We, the people who benefitted (as little as we did) from this man's cheating, insist that we are victims of his treachery, too. Now that we cannot possible get anything out of him.
Players have lied (or tried to) about how injuries were incurred (yes, I'm looking at you Mr. Kent), players have taken cocaine (very long list) and they all got paid barring a suspension from the Commissioner's office. The Rockies tried to invalidate Denny Neagle's contract because he got arrested for solicitation of a prostitute. That didn't work.
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