Are you as honest as Jeremy Affeldt?
In his new book, the San Francisco Giants relief pitcher says he returned $500,000 to the team after noticing a clerical error in his contract.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman shares what happened.
According to Schulman, Affeldt writes that he was set to earn $4 million in 2010 from the team. They negotiated a two-year contract extension for 2011 and 2012, and the language was mistakenly changed to say he was going to earn $4.5 million in 2010. Both sides signed the contract without noticing the error.
After Affeldt realized the error, he spoke with a few people who said he was legally entitled to the money. However, Affeldt didn’t feel right accepting the money, so he notified the team and they signed a new deal that included the correct amount.
Affeldt thinks his honesty helped make negotiations smoother last winter when he and the team agreed to a 3-year, $18 million contract. I’m guessing his consecutive strong seasons in 2011 and 2012 didn’t hurt, either.
Forearm bash to Hardball Talk
