This slowly developing story from Tuesday came to a head this afternoon as Buster Posey has put out a statement confirming that the San Francisco Giants have suspended the injured Harrison Bader without pay
.Over the weekend, Harrison Bader was involved in an accident that has delayed Harrison’s prior treatment timeline for plantar fasciitis and, unfortunately, his return to the field. We are still investigating the circumstances of the accident, but will be suspending payment to Harrison until he is able
to resume performing services for the Club.
What I appreciate about that statement is how clumsy it is, because it suggests that Buster didn’t write it using generative AI. Oh, but you’re here for the analysis.
Well, Harrison Bader was out late Saturday night into Sunday morning and, possibly while intoxicated, crashed the scooter he was riding into the back of a San Francisco Fire Department truck. Maybe it was the force of the impact or the truck was beginning its motion, but one of the tires ran over his foot. So, this is a severely aggravated injury and it will be interesting to see how it impacts his career going forward.
His time as a Giant would certainly seem to be up in the air, not just given the injury, but because of the foolishness. For all of us who thought this was a bad signing from concept, I don’t think we factored in the player’s behavior very much.
Even if we accept that most baseball players are overgrown boys, Bader was set to confer with the team’s medical experts the very next day. Plenty of players have been known to hit the field hungover, but doing all of this when you’ve already missed so much time and you’re about to be transported on the team’s dime to evaluate you further just… it’s beyond a bad look, and whatever moral, ethical, or troll arguments you want to make will probably stick. We don’t even need to ask what Bader was thinking, because we know he wasn’t.
What’ll be interesting to see is how the suspension of pay is handled. We don’t know the severity of the injury relative to recovery, for example, so, if his foot was crushed, let’s say, and there’s a 14-month recovery timeline or whatever, does “until he is able to resume performing services for the Club” mean his contract will have been, effectively, voided? And will the MLBPA stand for such a maneuver? But also, does “suspending payment” mean the same thing as “suspended without pay?” In the latter, you imagine that he doesn’t get that money once the suspension ends. In “suspending payment,” you can envision a scenario where they need to put that money in an escrow account until the matter is resolved. Careful wording that’s consistent with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement or just another clumsy aspect of the statement? [I’ll probably edit this section once someone clarifies.]
And then there’s the other complication of the pending lockout. I guess it’s only bad news for Harrison Bader, so I apologize for sounding alarmist.
The Giants get to save some more dollars to go along with all those open 40-man spots. Should help them pay down Robbie Ray’s contract at the deadline.
