From the Ethics Alarms Rationalizations List:
1. The King’s Pass, The Star Syndrome, or “What Will We Do Without Him?”
One will often hear unethical behavior excused because the person involved is so important, so accomplished, and has done such great things for so many people that we should look the other way, just this once. This is a terribly dangerous mindset, because celebrities and powerful public figures come to depend on it. Their achievements, in their own minds and those of their supporters and fans, have earned them a more lenient ethical standard. This pass for bad behavior is as insidious as it is pervasive, and should be recognized and rejected whenever it raises its slimy head. In fact, the more respectable and accomplished an individual is, the more damage he or she can do through unethical conduct, because such individuals engender great trust. Thus the corrupting influence on the individual benefiting from The King’s Pass leads to the corruption of others.
Why is this such a difficult concept to grasp? Not everyone in baseball fails to comprehend it. Last season, the Boston Red Sox star slugger, Rafael Devers, the highest paid player on the team who had just signed a huge ten year contract, flatly refused to play first base when the regular Sox first baseman suffered a season-ending injury. The manager asked him to do it, the General Manager, even the owner flew cross-country to urge Devers to do what was in the best interests of the team. He still obstinately refused.
So the Red Sox General Manager Craig Breslow traded him in a week, telling reporters that there were a lot of young players on the team, and he wasn’t going to have its stars teaching them the wrong way to be a baseball player. “It’s the willingness to step up and sacrifice at times of need and essentially do whatever is necessary to help the team win,” he explained. “I think that’s the identity, this relentless pursuit of winning, that we’re looking for.”
Bingo! The King’s Pass would have corrupted the team culture. Interestingly, both Hazen and Lovullo came from the Red Sox organization, but Boston did not always have an anti-King’s Pass culture. To the contrary, in the past the team tolerated some of the most outrageous conduct by its stars imaginable.
Marte signed a seven-year, $116.5 million contract extension last year 2025. So all that money doesn’t obligate him to show up for work? The Diamondbacks say they tried to trade the jerk over the winter, but couldn’t get a fair deal. Baloney. The Red Sox got little in return for Devers when they traded him except that their jerk became the San Francisco Giants’ jerk, and that made the trade worthwhile.
There is no defense for Arizona tolerating Marte’s conduct, and no way that it ends well for the player or the team. There are so many examples in the histories of organizations in and out of sports that it is stunning to see the lesson still having to be learned the hard way.
But that is what the Diamondbacks fans have to look forward to.
Ethics Alarms 
Kettle is an odd duck. He may just be a spoiled, Hispanic, princeling baby hot dog. He’s definitely corrosive and a problem, potentially. Personally, watching him all the time, I think he’s over-rated. He seems to disappoint more often than he delivers in the clutch. Not that I am conversant in such things, but I see his WAR is 1.7. I’m guessing he will get traded this coming off season. Unfortunately, probably to the Padres, who, unlike the Diamondbacks, seem to have substantial financial resources. Or, maybe the Yankees or the Mets will take him if he’s as good as everyone says he is.
Fortunately, I don’t think he’s created a clubhouse problem. I think the rest of the team is sympathetic to what Marte has done to management and ownership. The Diamondbacks are building toward the future with a lot of young players. They aren’t going to get the third NL wildcard.
Another dynamic working in favor of the team not being torn up by Kettle’s shenanigans: The team is largely Hispanic, as is the team’s leadership. Gerardo Perdomo is reputedly the team leader. I think he and the other Hispanic guys, Eduardo Rodriquez in particular, can prevent the situation from metastisizing.
All that being said, putting on your management consultant hat, what would you advise Hazen and Luvullo and Derrick Hall to do about the situation Kettle?
Get rid of him. A resource that you can’t rely on isn’t a resource. Right now all they can do is pt him on waivers and hope someone is desperate enough to take on his salary. I can’t think of a single example of one of these situations that worked out well. Carl Everett? Puig?
The season is February to October. Roughly four months to recover, regroup, relax, travel, enjoy. You’d think that young, fit athletes could manage to show up for 162 games. No? Do their contracts not address issues like this? I thought MLB players absolutely love that they are paid extraordinary amounts of money to play a game! Is he really so valuable they can’t punish this guy? Random thoughts, but what the hell?!
Back in the day, that’s exactly what players were expected to do. Everyday players played, well, every day, or nearly so. But teams no longer expect their players to play each and every day — 162 games is a rarity, although teams will hope that their regulars will play in 150 something games a year. Additionally teams have days off regularly, probably between 20 and 30 over the course of a six month season.
One of the jobs that managers have is to keep track of their players and make sure they don’t get over worked, if possible, and don’t get burned out. So the managers will schedule days off for the players, even the super stars.
But. There are limits. Clubs today carry 13 position players (and 13 pitchers), so 9 start each game with 4 on the bench. One of those bench players will be a catcher, and managers don’t want to replace their catcher without good reason (what if the backup catcher then gets hurt?), which brings you down to 3 pinch hitters.
All that said, if you’re paying someone $30 million per year, you do that because you expect him to make a major contribution to your club. That means he really needs to play almost every game. You’re also expected to lead by example — there are always young kids on the team that look to the veterans for inspiration.
If you’ve just got to have a day off, I am sure the manager will arrange it, for the most part.
Which is also why Cal Ripken’s consecutive games played streak is now in the “will never be broken” column. (Of course, they said that about the record Cal broke too.)