CLEVELAND — Clothing and other items celebrating a 2016 Cleveland Indians World Series championship that never happened will be destroyed instead of donated to those in need.
Championship merchandise is produced for both teams when a major title is on the line so items can be immediately sold to the winning team’s fans. The Chicago Cubs defeated the Indians in the Series last week.
ESPN and The Huffington Post reported that Major League Baseball is asking retailers to give back Indians championship gear so it can be destroyed. MLB had donated clothing to needy countries through the charity World Vision since 2005.
MLB said it has opted to destroy the items this year in order to “protect the team from inaccurate merchandise being available in the general marketplace.”
THE PLAYERS’ union has fired arbitrator Fredric Horowitz, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday because the firing was not publicly announced.
Dan Halem, MLB’s chief legal officer, informed general managers at their meeting this week. The players’ association made the decision after Horowitz ruled against it in an injury assignment case involving Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Charlie Culberson.
Horowitz started as baseball’s neutral arbitrator in June 2012. He replaced Shyam Das, who had held the position since 1999 but was fired by management following his decision to overturn Ryan Braun’s 50-game suspension for a positive drug test.
In Horowitz’s most notable decision, he reduced Alex Rodriguez’s 211-game suspension to 162 games, a penalty imposed for violations of baseball’s drug agreement and labor contract.
HALEM UPDATED GMs on talks for a labor contract to replace the five-year deal that expires Dec. 1. Manfred had hoped for an agreement before the end of the World Series last week. Teams with high payrolls would like to know the level of the luxury-tax threshold, which was $189 million this year.
“There’s a couple of natural deadlines,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “One is the beginning of free agency and the other one’s obviously the expiration date. Well, we missed deadline one, so we’re looking at deadline two now.”
MLB HAS not yet spoken with the World Baseball Softball Confederation about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Japanese baseball and Olympic officials would like major leaguers to participate, but MLB and its players are reluctant because the Olympics will be held from July 24 to Aug. 9.
“We’ve had an exchange of letters, We’ve asked them to come in and explain exactly what the program is going to look like in order to put us in a position to make a firm evaluation,” Manfred said.
FOLLOWING THE suspension of San Diego General Manager A.J. Preller for 30 days without pay in September following an MLB investigation that concluded the Padres had withheld medical information from trade partners, requirements for sharing medical records will be enhanced.
Preller was sanctioned after San Diego did not disclose records in a July deal that sent All-Star left-hander Drew Pomeranz to Boston. MLB and the union instituted an electronic medical records system in 2010.
“It was largely kind of left to a committee of athletic trainers to determine the types of records each club should maintain, how they’re maintained. We’re going to formalize it a little more and are contemplating issuing firm guidance in terms of what has to be in, what has to be out,” Halem said.
ANGELS: Los Angeles agreed to a $1 million, one-year contract to keep right-handed reliever Andrew Bailey, the first of this year’s 157 free agents to reach a deal.
Bailey, 32, revitalized his career last season with the Angels – his fifth big-league team – by posting six saves with a 2.38 ERA in 12 appearances. He became the Angels’ closer after Huston Street’s season-ending injury.
BRAVES: Atlanta and right-hander Josh Collmenter agreed on a one-year, $1.2 million contract for 2017.
Collmenter is expected to contend for a spot in Atlanta’s rotation in spring training.
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