Hypothetical question
Reading, via MetsBlog, Jon Heyman’s report that Carlos Zambrano is “eminently available” got me thinking, and not just about how it directly contradicts earlier reports.
For Zambrano to be traded, he’d have to waive his no-trade clause, and I wonder, if I was in his situation, if I’d want to.
On one hand, signing a contract with a club with a no-trade clause guarantees the right to play out the contract with that club. So it’s not like it should make him a bad guy to exercise that right. On the other, I can’t imagine it’d be that great a feeling to stick around an organization when you know it doesn’t want you.
I don’t know Zambrano, but judging by some of the things he’s said and done, it’s safe to say he’s, ahh, unique. He hates Gatorade dispensers, for one thing. And he’s vowed to retire after his current contract is up so he could spend more Mother’s Days with his family, which is nice.
The whole concept of “trading,” as has been well-documented, is weird. It’s not something that happens in most occupations. Of course, most occupations don’t come with five-year, $91.5 million contracts, so there’s a trade-off there.
But I’m pretty sure I’d be a little taken aback if one day some SNY bigwig came over to my little nook of the office and was just like, “hey Ted, bad news, man. We’re trading you to NESN for Eric Ortiz. Now pack up your stuff and uproot your family.”
And if that same bigwig said, “of course, you have the option of staying here, but, you know, we’d really like to get rid of you and we’d much rather have Ortiz, but if it’s so important to you that you stay in your home in the city you love, well, I guess that’s OK,” I honestly don’t know what I’d do.
Zambrano apparently owns a home in the Chicago area. He has had a bit of a rocky relationship with Cubbie fans, but he’s never played for any other team.
So would you stay at your job, knowing that your bosses and possibly your co-workers didn’t want you around anymore, provided that your only other option was moving to a whole other city somewhere in a different part of the country?
