Ruling: Suspended Players Must Be Paid

NEW YORK — In another decision eroding baseball’s disciplinary power, an arbitrator ordered that all players must be paid during suspensions for on-field misconduct.

In a case involving Ron Gant, Terry Pendleton and Xavier Hernandez, arbitrator Nicholas Zumas decided withholding the pay of suspended players amounted to “an improper fine” even if their contracts contained clauses specifically giving teams the right not to pay them during bans.

“A special covenant that does not provide an actual or potential additional benefit is not binding and is not enforceable,” Zumas wrote in a 35-page decision signed Monday and obtained by the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Zumas, fired as the sport’s independent arbitrator by owners and players July 30, also ordered teams to give the three players interest in addition to their back pay. Under a decision made during the collusion cases in the 1980s, a fired arbitrator is allowed to rule on cases that already have been argued before him.

Baseball’s disciplinary process has been criticized by umpires, who have called suspensions “paid vacations.”

“It is a penalty to take a player off the field, even if he does get paid,” said Gene Orza, the union’s No. 2 official. “It’s definitely a penalty, not a paid vacation.”

After Roberto Alomar spit at umpire John Hirschbeck on the final weekend of last season, umpires became enraged when the Baltimore second baseman was suspended for only five games. Their anger increased when, following precedent, the start of the penalty was pushed back to the opening of the 1997 season rather than taking effect in the playoffs, and he was paid during the ban.

In contrast to the NFL, NBA and NHL, baseball teams generally have paid players during suspensions.