There's a bit of a storm brewing between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers in the wake of last week's trade of Jon Garland from Arizona to Los Angeles.The Diamondbacks, who were expecting to get infielder Tony Abreu from the Dodgers as the player to be named for Garland, now believe that the Dodgers, presumably GM Ned Colletti, may not have negotiated the deal in good faith, sources told the Arizona Republic.
The issue stems from a grievance Abreu filed over a situation in 2007. The Dodgers sent him to the minors when he believed he should have been on the major league disabled list with an injury. Apparently that grievance is about to be settled by awarding Abreu extra service time, perhaps as much as the entire 47 days he was in Triple-A.
If Abreu gets the extra service time, it could make him arbitration eligible a whole year earlier than the Diamondbacks were expecting. That could cost them a million bucks or more.
So far it's not clear how all this will be resolved. Neither side was talking, but it's likely the commissioner's office is going to have to get involved. The Diamondbacks might be allowed to pick another player from the Dodgers system, perhaps a better one. The Dodgers might be forced to kick in some money to pay the extra money that Abreu could earn.It would be pretty amusing if the Dodgers had to give Garland back to Arizona -- after he beat Arizona in his first start for Los Angeles -- but that's pretty unlikely. This particular dispute, although fascinating, does not seem to be that serious. There will certainly be an easier remedy.
In any case, if the Dodgers actually made this deal without telling the Diamondbacks about the grievance, that doesn't look good for general manager Ned Colletti. The chance that a player could get more than a quarter-season worth of service time in one swoop would seem to be significant information.
