Signing Russ Ortiz was hardly the only mistake the Arizona Diamondbacks have made since Ken Kendrick’s group bailed out the overextended owners who hocked the franchise’s future to win the 2001 World Series.
Kendrick’s group, which former agent Jeff Moorad and general manager Josh Byrnes now run, blew it just as badly when it said the club won’t pay Jason Grimsley after releasing him.
Because Grimsley was nailed for accepting shipments of human-growth hormone at his house–not the perfect crime–he deserved to be hammered. He thought the right thing to do was to ask for his release, letting his teammates avoid the distractions he would bring and a thankful management was happy to grant him his wish.
But unlike the NFL, when a baseball team releases a player with a guaranteed contract, it pays the freight. That means Grimsley is due the rest of his $825,000, even if it hardly can be said he earned it.
But Kendrick decided to make a self-righteous statement about not paying cheaters. Well, then he shouldn’t have signed one.
Kendrick said, “This guy did no less than steal from us.” Would he have felt that way if Grimsley had pitched well, helped Arizona make the playoffs and avoided detection as a growth hormone user?
Don’t think so.
You can bet Grimsley will file a grievance to reclaim his salary, with the players’ union strongly arguing his case. It’s hard to see how the Diamondbacks have a leg to stand on with this one.
“The Diamondbacks’ [attempt not to pay] Grimsley is a clear violation of the Basic Agreement,” the union’s Michael Weiner said.
It might have been different if they had dumped Grimsley for violating some sort of specific or general clause in his contract, but they didn’t. They simply released him, the way they might have done if his earned-run average had been 40.88 instead of 4.88.
Some fights aren’t worth fighting–and this is one of those. Give him his money like it was the consolation prize on a game show and move on.
While battling with Grimsley over relatively chump change, the Diamondbacks are preparing to pay Ortiz the remaining $22.5 million on the four-year, $33.5 million deal they gave him after the 2004 season. In his short time in Arizona, the 32-year-old right-hander has gone 5-16, including only one victory in his last 19 starts. His career has been downhill since 2002 and ’03, when he made eight 120-pitch starts for Dusty Baker in San Francisco and five for Bobby Cox in Atlanta.
For Arizona, this was a blockhead contract to start with, but Ortiz was in the right place at the right time. There’s no easier mark than a new owner trying to make a good impression, and that’s what Kendrick was after Arizona lost 111 games in 2004.
In addition to Ortiz, Arizona also traded for Javier Vazquez and signed Troy Glaus, Craig Counsell and Royce Clayton that winter. Counsell is all that is left from that fivesome.
The Diamondbacks believe they have a chance to win the National League West this season and decided they couldn’t keep sending Ortiz to the mound. The money they’re paying him will become baseball’s all-time biggest severance, replacing the $15.7 million Anaheim handed Kevin Appier on July 30, 2003.
