Baseball - Barry Bonds Contract Can Be Terminated I

Barry Bonds and San Francisco Giants’ saga seems to be coming to an end. The long awaited contract is finally reaching conclusion and it now looks like Bonds has agreed to give the Giants rights to terminate his one year contract incase he gets indicted in the BALCO case.

Giants wanted some kind of security in a contract that is worth $15 million and finally Bonds relented and agreed to it.

Greg Anderson, Bonds personal trainer, is already serving a prison sentence in a federal prison in California since he refused to testify whether Bonds had perjured himself when he had informed a grand jury in 2003 that he had never taken performance enhancing drugs knowingly.

In case Bonds is found guilty of perjury, the Giants can terminate the one year contract under two sections of the Uniform Player Contract. This was disclosed by a baseball executive on condition of anonymity. Both the sections give Giants the right to end the contract and the clauses have been added to Bonds’ contract.

The Giants have further safeguarded themselves by having an option in the contract to change it into nonguaranteed contract. A nonguaranteed contract is when a player can be released from the team before the opening day for 30 or 45 days’ termination pay.

This new contract with the Giants give an opportunity to earn $4.2 million in performance bonus. The breakdown of which is $500,000 for 250 plate appearances, $1 million for 300, 375 and 450 appearances and a further $700,000 for 525 plate appearances.

Bonds’ agent, Jeff Borris, did not give details about the contract while Peter Magowan, Giants’ owner, was not available to comment on the terms of the contract.

Bonds’ fans would just have to keep their fingers crossed and hope for the best.