Bernie Williams has missed a significant amount of time with the Yankees this year with his father’s illness and recent passing. During that time, the Yankees have left his roster spot open. They have, in effect, been playing with only 24 players.
One possibility was to put him on the disabled list. The obvious problem with that is that Williams is not injured.
A second possibility suggested was to put him on the restricted list. However, doing that may cause problems as well. Players on the restricted list do not get paid. The union would have problems with putting him on this list.
I have two questions (one for each method).
Disabled List:
I seem to recall that there was a player a number of years back who went on the disabled list to mourn for his son who had just died. (I think it was Mike Bordick, but I could be wrong on that). As with Williams, there was no “injury” as well.
Of course, an additional problem with the DL is that there is a minimum 15 day stay.
Restricted List:
What’s to stop the Yankees from putting Williams on the RL and giving him a “bonus” equal to whatever his salary would have been. Wouldn’t that satisfy the union and everyone involved?
Let Bernie mourn.He’ll be gone for a week,he’ll come back and go on a tear. I’m betting he comes back,hits 40 Hr,110Rbi and singlehandedly carries the Yankmees to their 4th straight series.He will be interviewed after a Game 4 sweep of the series (after driving in the winning run ).He will say,with tears in his eyes,“This ones for you,Dad”.
We saw it before in '2000 with Paul O’neills dad.In '99 with Joe Torres illness,AND in ‘98 with Brosius’ Dad.
Please…will someone keep the YANKMEES family healthy so some OTHER team can win one.I’m pretty sick of hearing “Theeeeeeeeee YANKEES win…Theeeeeeeee Yankees win”
I wasn’t clamoring for his immediate return. I was just wondering why he couldn’t be put on the restricted list to free up a roster spot and the Yankees pay him anyway.
I think the minimum 15-day stay on the DL explains why that path wasn’t taken. In effect you set up a death watch for Williams pere, and if he lingers, you have to extend Bernie’s stay.
I’m guessing there are institutional barriers to paying a bonus to players on the RL, although maybe it’s just a matter of baseball execs failing to explore innovative solutions. As far as I know RL players remain there indefinitely and can be activated immediately. Pine Time Sanders came off RL this spring for the Reds, and Ricky Williams has been on Texas’ RL for more than 2 years.
An easier solution comes to mind: the Yanks could have optioned Williams to Columbus and told him to go home to PR. That way the AAA team takes the roster hit and Williams continues to draw a salary.
Anyway, Bernie has appeared in 28 of 38 of Yanks’ games, so it’s not like he has been away. It’s only his bat that’s missing, and given his personal circumstances, that’s understandable.
From what I’ve read, there aren’t any provisions that allow you to put someone on the DL for “family illness”. It’s something that would have to be negotiated in the next Basic Agreement.
Right now, if you wish to tell the truth, you have to put the player on the Restricted List. The Astros just did this with Charlie Hayes.
There are probably some sort of contractual problems with putting Williams on the restricted list.
And if you want to send him to AAA, then there’s probably a whole host of problems that may result including the possible loss of someone on the 40-man roster.
I think it is something that needs to be taken care of in the next negotiations.
I’m sure if they really wanted to put Bernie on the DL, they could find any number of minor, nagging injuries.
Also, while the 15-day stay is mandatory, if he hasn’t played in a couple days, you can retroactively place him on the list as of the last day he played. I don’t think this matters here, though.
I believe this is correct. I’m not sure that Williams can even be optioned to AAA without his consent, and, even if he were to give it, there may very well be 40 man roster consequences, service time issues, etc.
I suspect, but can’t prove, that he could be put on the 15 day DL if the Yankees wanted to (I believe Williams could file a grievance if he objected to the move). I imagine their reasons for not doing so revolve around them expecting him back before 15 days have elapsed.