Demotion as Discipline: Learning to be a "Big Leaguer"

Florida Marlins' twenty-four-year-old, up-and-coming star, Logan Morrison was sent down to the minor leagues right after a game where he batted third in the lineup. Marlin brass told Lo Mo Morrison (LoMo) that he was being sent down for "baseball reasons" and cited his .240 batting average as evidence.  However, two days after being recalled, Morrison and the MLB Players' Association (MLBPA) filed a grievance against the Florida Marlin for what they see as a wrongful demotion.
Morrison believes that his demotion to AAA New Orleans was a form of discipline without just cause.  At the time,  LoMo was second on the Marlins in OPS, second in home runs, and third in runs batted in.  Additionally, the demotion came the day after LoMo missed a team meet and greet with Marlin season ticket holders.  LoMo had asked his Union Representative, Wes Helms, if he could miss the event, at which Helms replied that it was ok for him to miss.  Helms was released the next day; (perhaps due to his part in the ordeal in giving faulty advice).  Moreover, Larry Beinfest, Marlin President of Baseball Operations commented to the press that LoMo needed some more education on "being a major leaguer."

So the question remains, when can a major league player who has minor league options remaining be sent down to the minor leagues?  For that answer, let's turn to the text of the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The NFL CBA and Contract Holdouts

The Tennessee Titans put Chris Johnson, their standout running back, on the their reserve/did not report to training camp list today. Chris Johnson has held out for much of training camp in his own personal lockout because he wants to renegotiate his current playing contract to make him one of the highest paid players in the league. The holdout tactic is nothing new as players such as Emmitt Smith, Larry Fitzgerald, Logan Mankins and Vincent Jackson have used the tactic before. I thought that this was such a big issue that something would be included in the new collective bargaining agreement that would limit the practice.

Johnson is in the fourth year of a five year deal where he is scheduled to make $1.065 million this season, which would barely cover the $840,000 in potential fines that he has rung up for missing practices. Under Article 42, Section 1 (vi) of the new CBA, any unexcused late reporting or absence from preseason training camp by a player under contract comes with a $30,000 a day fine.

It is obvious that these fines have not been effective in stopping or deterring contract holdouts from occurring. I am currently writing and editing a law journal article on this topic where I propose that players and their teams enter into mandatory mediation prior to holding out, as opposed to salary or non-binding arbitration, which is prescribed for disputes over minimum contracts. I will either post that article or let you know where you can read it if I find a Journal to publish it. Nonetheless, the new CBA did not do enough to address the holdout epidemic and it will be costly to the players' teams and their fans. If and when Chris Johnson returns to the field for the Titans, he will be way behind the learning curve, which will have negative effect on the teams chances on winning the Super Bowl this season.

What exactly is in the new NFL CBA?

Lost in the excitement of the fact that football is back and the preseason games are in full swing is the fact there is a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement that is chock full of new and modified rules and provisions. With the second and third stringers seeing a majority of snaps, now is a better time to dig deeper into what exactly is in the new NFL CBA and the type of impact it will have on the NFL labor market as well as the ongoing and future CBA discussions in the NBA, MLB and NHL. The NFL CBA can be found here if you want to follow along at home.

Because the majority of the news reporters already covered the salary cap/revenue sharing deal points that seemed to take up a majority of the NFL lockout coverage, I will focus this discussion on more of the nuanced provisions such as: (1) the prevalence of binding arbitration as way to settle most disputes, including player contract holdouts; (2) new performance enhancing drug (HGH) testing; worker's compensation rules; (3) worker's compensation filing rules; and (4) the Commissioner's power to discipline players for off the field conduct, among others. Up first, we will discuss the rise of alternative dispute resolution, specifically the rise in the use of arbitration and whether it can be used to settle contract holdouts. Stay tuned!