1. There’s no amount mentioned. If Jamie expected his statement to immediately result in salary relief, he would have mentioned how much salary relief he is due.
2. The Buffaloes is a great name for a baseball team. Much better than “the Braves” (unnecessarily offensive) or “the Guardians” (might work if baseball was 100% defense and involved a lot of stiff standing around). The only excuse for either of these names would be if there were no other good names. Are “Spiders” too icky? Then why not a state bird?
Ok, the Georgia state bird is the “brown thrasher” which may not be clearly less offensive than “Braves”. But what about just calling them the “Thrashers”? That would be a GREAT name for a baseball team — all speed and strength and wild, uncontrolled intimidation! My heart is racing just thinking about it.
And the Ohio state bird is the Cardinal — already taken. The state nut or tree (it seems to be both) is the “Buckeye” but that’s also already taken. So those won’t do. But why not the state gemstone (the Flints)? Or the state flower (the Carnations)? The state insect (the Ladybugs)? The state mammal (the Deer)? The state native fruit (the Pawpaws)? The state Achitectural Structure (the Barn)? (Opposing pitchers might feel a need to prove they can, too, hit the broad sides of the Barns, leading to skyrocketing on base percentages for the Cleveland team.) None of these are any worse than naming your team after socks.
Maybe you could run through dozens of great ideas before you get to “Buffaloes.” But you could run through thousands more before you had to settle for Braves or Guardians.
Wait! That wasn’t my second point!! My second point is “The Buffaloes are not an MLB or EFL team.” And this matters because here is our rule on such situations:
Rule III. A. 1. e.
The obligations under a Veteran players’ contract endure until they expire by their terms, unless the player dies or retires, or another MLB or EFL team contracts with the player after the player has been DFA’d.”
We had this question come up a season or two ago when a couple of players (including the Wolverines’ Oliver Perez) got released from the EFL and signed with Mexican teams. Did we get to offset their Mexican salaries against what we owed them greenbacks? My memory — I have not been able to find written evidence of this — is we decided the rule LIMITS offset to other contracts in MLB or the EFL.
3. BUT WAIT! I have a third point: I think our rule may be wrong! In contract law, if I promise to buy your car for $750,000 and then skip out on the deal, and you sell the car to someone else for, say $50,000, your damages are only $700,000. Because that’s all that’s required for you to come out where you would have had I kept my end of the deal.
We don’t punish people for breaking contracts. We only make the breacher give the breached the benefit of the bargain.
The benefit of Schwindel’s bargain with the Tornados (a great name for a baseball team — as good as the
“Thrashers” without the willful malice overtones) was he would get $2,500,000 to play baseball in 2023. But he is under a duty to make reasonable efforts to minimize his damages. He can’t just sit on his duff and collect his pay. Getting hired by another baseball team is a classic “reasonable effort.” It’s not too much to ask. That’s why, if he signed with the Mariners for $750,000 he would not get to keep it PLUS the $2,500,000, because that would be milking the M’s for more benefits than he bargained for.
“Thrashers” without the willful malice overtones) was he would get $2,500,000 to play baseball in 2023. But he is under a duty to make reasonable efforts to minimize his damages. He can’t just sit on his duff and collect his pay. Getting hired by another baseball team is a classic “reasonable effort.” It’s not too much to ask. That’s why, if he signed with the Mariners for $750,000 he would not get to keep it PLUS the $2,500,000, because that would be milking the M’s for more benefits than he bargained for.
SO —
IF Jamie can come up with a reliable figure for what Schwindel is being paid by the handsomely-named Buffalos, I recommend the league should adopt an amendment to the rule to allow us to discount anything a player makes for playing baseball anywhere.
Getting a different job wouldn’t count because, presumably, there is no other job as good as getting paid to pay baseball.
I invite any other lawyers in the league to rebut if I have made any errors of law. Or if anyone can discover whether MLB teams get offsets for Japanese salaries, please give us a link.