Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 30, 2007
Out Clause

The AP details the out clauses in Barry Bonds' contract:

As part of the agreement, if Bonds is indicted the Giants have the right to terminate it under two sections of the Uniform Player Contract, a baseball executive said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team didn't announce that detail.

Under 7(b)(1), a team may terminate a contract if the player shall "fail, refuse or neglect to conform his personal conduct to the standards of good citizenship and good sportsmanship or to keep himself in first-class physical condition or to obey the club's training rules."

Section 7(b)(3) gives the team the right to end the deal if a player shall "fail, refuse or neglect to render his services hereunder or in any manner materially breach this contract."

In addition, the Giants have the less drastic option of converting Bonds' deal to nonguaranteed, the baseball executive said. Players with nonguaranteed contracts can be released before opening day for 30 or 45 days' termination pay, depending on the timing.

As part of the deal, Bonds gave up the right to ask the players' association to file a grievance if he is indicted and the contract is terminated. But nothing would stop the union from pursuing a grievance on its own.

It seems those apply to any player, the agreement is about Bonds not fighting the invocation of those clauses.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:09 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Looks like they made news out of nothing. It's great how the press gets these anonymous sources to make these speculative claims regarding Bonds. The quoted sections are not able to perform due to a player's own actions clauses.

It's a real stretch to take 7(b)(1) several years into the past (doesn't that look like an partying/obesity clause?). 7(b)(3) could perhaps apply in the case of an indictment, followed by trial and conviction, followed by an actual jail sentence, followed by appeals, followed by Barry Bonds actually going to jail - in other words, in 2009 or later or never.
Writer and baseball executive probably don't know that indictment does not equal conviction.

In short, if Bonds gets indicted for the way he answered grand jury question in 2003 or for cheating on his taxes any time, they're not terminating his contract and they don't have very good legal argument to do so. If he gets suspended because of a positive test, they may have an argument based on 7(b)(1).

Posted by: Ralph at January 30, 2007 11:35 PM

See the Barry Bloom article on sfgiants, or the Stark article on ESPN, or the Nightengale article on USA Today for a bit of more accurate and researched reporting.

Much of the press just makes stuff up about Bonds, or distorts things severely, to create a headline.

Posted by: Ralph at January 31, 2007 01:34 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?