SAN DIEGO — The San Francisco Giants announced the team will suspend salary payments to center fielder Harrison Bader, who was injured in a scooter collision in the predawn hours in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow neighborhood Sunday.
The club released a statement Friday in which Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey said the team is continuing to investigate the incident and that Bader will not be paid until he returns to the field.
“Over the weekend, Harrison Bader was involved in an accident that has delayed Harrison’s prior treatment timeline for plantar fasciitis and, unfortunately, his return to the field,” Posey said in the statement. “We are still investigating the circumstances of the accident, but will be suspending payment to Harrison until he is able to resume performing services for the Club.”
Bader, 32, is in the first season of a two-year, $20.5 million contract signed in January. He hasn’t played since May 29 because of a left foot ailment that the team has described as plantar fasciitis. Although the Giants have not updated Bader’s condition following the scooter accident, San Francisco Police confirmed that a person matching the timing and circumstances of the accident — Bader’s scooter collided with a fire truck — was treated for injuries at the scene and transported to a hospital.
Bader, who was reportedly seen drinking at bars before the crash, was also involved in a scooter accident in 2014 when he was a sophomore at the University of Florida that led to a 19-game suspension.
In a medical update the Giants released Tuesday, the club announced Bader saw a foot and ankle specialist in Indianapolis on Monday, a visit that had been scheduled prior to the accident, and that “the impact of that (collision-related) injury changed the nature of his evaluation.”
The Giants’ investigation into the accident has been slowed because Bader has not fully cooperated with club officials, according to a source who has been briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity for their candor.
Bader’s agent, Greg Genske, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Although it’s expected that the Players Association would file a grievance on Bader’s behalf, union chief Bruce Meyer declined comment in the immediate wake of the news, as did Major League Baseball.
In the uniform player’s contract, which is part of the collective bargaining agreement, there is a provision forbidding a player from participating in “other sports” that involve “a substantial risk of personal injury” unless he has permission from his team. If the Giants determine Bader violated this or any part of his contract, the union would be able to challenge any discipline —including docked pay — by filing a grievance.
What might allow the Giants to suspend pay at this point? MLB contracts state that a player’s inability to play “directly resulting from injury sustained in the course and within the scope of his employment” won’t interfere with pay, but that “any other disability may be ground for suspending or terminating” a contract. But again, Bader and the union can challenge that.
The Giants could face a difficult burden if they must prove that Bader’s accident directly caused his inability to play. His recovery timeline from the initial foot injury was already unclear; on Friday, when asked whether Bader would play again this season, Giants manager Tony Vitello referenced the original foot injury and said, “I think that would’ve been a long shot to begin with.”
Evan Drellich contributed to this report.
