With a guaranteed contract that would pay him $13.25 million this year, all Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Ryan Dempster had to do was fail to make the team or be relegated to the disabled list to collect it all. Dempster felt, however, that his physical condition would not allow him to contribute to the team’s efforts to defend its 2013 World Championship, and that under the circumstances, decided that it would be better for all concerned if he didn’t play in 2014 and spent the year with his family. Thus, while not retiring, Ryan Dempster announced that he would forfeit the money owed to him.
Dempster made $13.25 million last year, and had made millions for many years before that; he certainly doesn’t “need” the money. Nevertheless, for a professional athlete to handle himself this way is about as rare as an ivory-billed woodpecker sighting. “I could have had a choice of trying to spend the entire season trying to work through those and trying to be able to pitch,” he said in his statement, delivered at the Red Sox Spring Training camp where the team is about to begin training. “But I just felt like it’s something that’s preventing me from doing the job I want to do, and I’m not going to go out there and put my team at a disadvantage or me at a disadvantage by not being able to compete the way I’m able to compete.”
Ryan Dempster, professional athlete, just placed team, family, integrity, and fairness above $13.25 million dollars.
Ethics Hero.
Ethics Alarms 
Sounds like a good man. He has a daughter with a rare genetic disease that he revealed publicly in 2009 that required a two month hospitalization for her.
That’s right up there with Bob Feller (thanks, Wikipedia!) demanding a pay cut because his performance wasn’t up to par in terms of earning the salary he was promised.
Ted Williams did likewise in 1959.
I agree with you about this, but if the Red Sox are putting him on the restricted list don’t you think they are obligated to pay him something?
Legally? I would assume so, but I think his decision to forfeit the money supersedes it. He knows better than the team if he can do without the cash, after all. There may be some legal need for them to pay him, but I bet they just fix that through the magic of paperwork- they “pay” him and he “donates” the money right back.
Lots of explanation about this in various baseball forums, but apparently that’s what the restricted list exists for: essentially the contract is frozen. Dempster didn’t want to commit to retirement, so he’s still under contract but no longer fulfilling his end of it, hence no obligation for the Red Sox to pay. He could come back during the season, but only pitch for Boston.
Most team sources think he’s de facto retired.
Ok, thanks for the explanation. Does this also free up that $13.25 million for the Red Sox?
Sure does. Honestly, it’s an incredible gift. The Sox don’t really need Dempster, who wasn’t worth that amount in the rotation, and was #6 or #7 on the depth chart at this point. They would have traded him, but his contract made it impossible. The team was also up against the 189 million luxury tax limit, meaning its payroll flexibility was constrained. There are players on almost every team’s roster, often several, that would have management dancing jigs if they did what Dempster just did. In contrast, Curt Schilling signed a big contract for his final year with the Sox, learned before the season that he would need an operation that was unlikely to leave him able to continue pitching, and still had the operation, sat on the disabled list all year, and collected his millions. That would be typical.
And now Schilling is broke.
And has cancer.
Well the Red Sox still suck and Fenway is still a dump that smells of urine and stale beer.
This really is commendable, because athletes rarely do leave money on the table, and it isn’t so remarkable that they don’t.
“What’s the difference between 40 million dollars and 50 million dollars? TEN MILLION DOLLARS!”