Bagwell fight to get ugly posted: Saturday, January 28, 2006 |
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In the matter of
Bagwell v. Astros' Insurance Claim, Houston-area reporters have told agent
Barry Axelrod that public opinion probably falls in favor of his client,
Jeff Bagwell, by a margin of about 70-30. I mentioned to Axelrod on Friday night that probably 75 percent of the e-mail received here favored Bagwell.
"The thing is, he doesn't deserve the 25 percent that are against him," said Axelrod. "He
hasn't done anything wrong."
But sadly, there does not appear to be any way for Bagwell to gracefully escape the bubble that has begun to envelope him, while also pursuing his desire to play baseball. Virtually every conflict in baseball contains a negotiable middle ground, but in Bagwell's situation, there does not appear to be any.
To review, these are the basic parameters of the conflict: Bagwell is nearing the end of his illustrious career and he has a bad right shoulder, a problem he has played with for years. He is slated to earn $17 million this year, under the terms of a contract he signed back in the glory years of big deals, when the
Kevin Browns of the world were getting $105 million, the
A-Rods $252 million. Like those other players, Bagwell's deal was heavily backloaded, his salary deferred.
The Astros, in assessing what they believe to be Bagwell's potential in 2006, have determined that they would rather deem him unable to play because of his shoulder, in order to cash in an insurance policy and collect $15.6 million of that $17 million owed to him. In other words, the Astros believe he's worth more to them if he doesn't play. And the team has informed Bagwell that according to the terms of the insurance policy, attempts by Bagwell to play would wreck their insurance claim.
But Bagwell doesn't want to retire; he wants to play. He wants to go to spring training and take grounders and attempt throws and swing a bat. The Astros want Bagwell to stand down, and the team does not have malicious intent; it is merely pursuing what it has determined is the best financial strategy available.
There really is no way to settle this. In theory, Bagwell could pursue a negotiated settlement of his $17 million salary to give the Astros enough financial relief to make the situation more palpable to the team. But under longstanding union rules, this is not permitted; contract values cannot be renegotiated downward, a principle acknowledged and honored by Major League Baseball (this is why the A-Rod-to-Boston deal fell apart a couple of years ago).
And if Bagwell felt there was principle involved, you could understand. He agreed to structure a backloaded deal in order to give relief to the Astros and allow them more flexibility to build their team, and now that the bill is coming due, they want to recoup some of his salary. Bagwell has done everything possible to honor his part of the bargain.
The Astros cannot protect themselves by releasing Bagwell, because they have to assume that some other team would be willing to give Bagwell a minimum-salary deal and a chance to prove he can still play -- and that would effectively gut their insurance claim (If Bagwell, a model citizen, was released and not offered any job for minimum salary, Axelrod would have a heck of a case for collusion).
Some teams arrange their insurance along a sliding scale that would allow the club to recover a proportional part of the player's salary. In other words, if Player A misses the entire season, the team might recover 90 percent of his salary, and if Player A played a quarter of the games, the team could recover 75 percent of the salary, etc. But that does not appear to be the case with the Astros' insurance on Bagwell: It appears to be an all-or-nothing policy. If he doesn't play, the team gets the money, and if he does play, the team doesn't get their money.
In the end, Axelrod speculates, Bagwell might actually wind up as the third party in a dispute between the Astros and their insurance carrier. Maybe there eventually will be a settlement between the insurance company and Houston, but that might not come quickly enough to resolve Bagwell's quandary. He wants to play, and the team does not want him to play.
All Bagwell wants to do is what he's always done: work hard, prepare diligently, put himself in the best possible position to help his teammates win.
"It's sad," said Axelrod, who feels for his friend. "It's sad, the way things are developing. I don't blame people for having their opinions, and you're going to have dissenting opinions. But I feel badly that he has to hear some of those negative opinions, because
he's done nothing wrong."
Axelrod doesn't think the conflict will reach the point where the Astros physically prevent Bagwell from stepping onto a practice field in spring training -- "that would open a whole new can of worms," he said -- but he knows there is a good chance that Bagwell's situation will become a point of enormous controversy.
"
Craig Biggio had a great point the other day," said Axelrod, who represents the second baseman, as well. "The only thing that's good for Jeff is that his girls are too young to know what's going on, and they won't have to hear about it in school."
Bagwell has been a strong servant of the game for 15 years, and at a time when the sports world knows too much about
Terrell Owens and
Ron Artest, he deserves much better than what the next 10 weeks may bring him.
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