What Happens to Shawn Chacon Now?

With a good 16 hours to digest the insane idea that a baseball player choke-slammed his general manager yesterday, there's still a ton of lingering questions. I mean, Shawn Chacon nicely admitted to the act, which is a surprise in this day an age, but now what? Chacon's "indefinitely suspended," but what does that really mean? Let's run down some of the options and how likely they are.

Chacon will pitch again this year for the Astros: Uhh, this isn't going to happen. I'm not going to say I'd eat my hat if Chacon pitches for the 'Stros again this year (I just bought my hat and hats taste bad). Let me put it this way: Barry Bonds will play for the Astros this year before Shawn Chacon does. You just don't keep players that do stuff like this on your team.

Chacon will pitch for someone else this year: Slightly more likely, but I don't think the odds are great here, either. For Chacon to pitch for another team, someone would either have to trade for the GM-choker, or the Astros would have to release him. We'll rule a trade out since Chacon already kind of sucks and he just destroyed any value he might have on the trade market. If I'm Ed Wade, I think I'm kind of content to keep him suspended and not pitching for anyone this year since I'm paying him either way. It might be a little vindictive, but Chacon's earned it.

Wade will press charges: What Chacon did here was definitely assault. If Wade was going to press charges we'd have probably heard about it already, but it's not out of the question.

Chacon will pitch for someone else next year: The comparison everyone is already making here is Latrell Sprewell. That's not entirely accurate because Spree was under contract to the Warriors for a while and they had to trade him as a result of his choking incident. Chacon only signed a one year deal with the Astros and will be a free agent when this season ends. Assuming the league doesn't take further disciplinary action beyond what the Astros do, someone will sign him this off-season. Everyone needs relief pitching and there are a LOT of pitchers worse than Chacon in the league right now. Anger problems or not, Sidney Ponson keeps finding work and so will Chacon.

Chacon's career is over: On the other hand, assaulting a prominent team official is pretty uncharted territory. If the league has agreed to blackball a potentially useful hitter like Barry Bonds, the old boys club that makes up the MLB GMs wouldn't bat an eye at not giving a middling reliever a contract for treating a GM the way he's treated Wade.

The MLBPA Intervenes: If the Astros do hand down a full-season suspension to Chacon, you can bet that the MLBPA will file a suit and try to get him released and on to a team next year, then sue for collusion if no one gives him a job. Which means that they're the wild card that can muck up just about every scenario that I laid out above.

Let this be a lesson to everyone. Don't choke your GM. Just don't do it.