Melky Cabrera

Melky Cabrera is eligible to receive a full playoff share of pay as a member of the World Series champions, despite the fact that he has not been a part of the SF Giants’ team for months. 

When a team makes it into the postseason, all the revenue generated from those games is split up among all the participating clubs and players. There many little rules, regulations, and bullet points as to who gets how much and how the postseason revenue is divided.  Players vote before the postseason as to how they are going to split the money and who gets full shares or partial shares.   We do not know how the Giants voted yet, but it gets complicated when it comes to dividing up the total revenues.  As the World Series winner, the Giants get 35% of total revenue.  Beneficiaries range from players to management, clubhouse guy to team’s traveling secretary, and even the groundskeeper gets a share.

And then there’s Cabrera, who was suspended on Aug. 15 for 50 games after testing positive for elevated levels of synthetic testosterone.  He spent 117 games on the roster this past season, which if my calculations are correct, put him at 72.2 percent of a full share.  But a union rule mandates a FULL share if a player’s team plays 10 games after the suspended player is eligible to be reinstated.  The Giants played 11.  Yes, he paid his dues and took the suspension.  He was eligible and the Giants chose not to put him back on the roster.  However, when he was suspended, the Giants excelled without him.  I agree with the Giants organization in that accepting him back with open arms would have sent the wrong message to everyone involved.  But I am not so sure if I agree with him receiving a full playoff share of pay.

V.V. KIN 577