MLBPA Files Grievance Against Yankees to Get Jacoby Ellsbury Salary Back
By Michael Luciano
The Jacoby Ellsbury era in New York will end not with a World Series championship, but a prolonged legal battle about salary guarantees.
The players union has filed a grievance against the Yankees as they try to force them into paying Ellsbury the $26 million he was originally guaranteed.
The Major League Baseball Players Association has filed a grievance against the New York Yankees in an attempt to regain the remaining $26 million due released outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury. https://t.co/Ty25REPiVy
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) December 19, 2019
The Yankees claim that Ellsbury sought medical treatment for an injury without the team's consent. As a result, they removed all the guarantees in his contract and released him. Ellsbury claims that he underwent treatment for a non-baseball injury, which does not require the team to consent.
Ellsbury's Yankee career can only be categorized as a massive disappointment. Despite signing a seven-year, $153 million contract, Ellsbury never hit higher than .271 in a season and only hit double-digit home runs once. Ellsbury hasn't seen one pitch in the majors since 2017, due to various injuries that apparently affected the notoriously brittle center fielder.
You may have missed this story by Ken Rosenthal over Thanksgiving, but it gets into a lot of the nitty-gritty in this dispute. https://t.co/TCWln53xlA
— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) December 19, 2019
Ellsbury hasn't stepped foot on an MLB diamond since 2017, and now is getting the union involved to recoup $26 million the Yankees won't pay him. This is assuredly not the ending he envisioned when he signed that massive contract way back in 2014.