Logan Morrison has filed a grievance against the Florida Marlins in connection with his demotion last month. Morrison claims that the Marlins wrongly sent him down to the Minor Leagues on the 13th of August.
This has been about a month in the making, as soon after the demotion was announced it was being reported that Morrison was considering the grievance process.
At the time, Morrison was not satisfied with the answer he received from the Marlins regarding his demotion. The club told him that it had to do with his struggles at the plate, yet Morrison was one of Florida’s best power hitters and run producers at the time.
Things didn’t add up to Morrison or his agent, who said the pair would be exploring their options to “make sure Logan’s rights are protected”.
It was later revealed that on the same day he was demoted, Morrison failed to attend an autograph session held for Marlins season ticket holders. Morrison’s reasoning for skipping the session was that he had a charity event of his own go badly earlier in the week.
So, after already attending a signing session earlier in the day, Morrison consulted with Marlins union rep Wes Helms and decided to sit out the evening event.
The result of that decision was Helms’ release and Morrison’s demotion.
To drive home the fact that Morrison being sent down had a bit more to do with discipline and off the field issues than simple statistics, Marlins President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest told the media that Morrison “just needs to concentrate on baseball and all aspects of being a major leaguer”.
While Morrison’s numbers at the time of his demotion weren’t awful, he wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire either. The MLB Players Association is going to have a hard time winning this grievance, but Morrison said yesterday that it’s more about standing up “for what’s right”.
So while the grievance may not have a large impact on the club monetarily, it does signal that Morrison is some kind of upset with the Marlins. For him to go through with this process means that he is very unhappy with how things were handled and probably still hasn’t received what he considers a valid reason for his demotion.
It’s yet to be seen how this impacts his future relations with the club but it’s certainly not a good sign.
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