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.