10 Days - Inside Your Mind When Designated For Assignment

One of the big recent MLB stories has been the how and why concerning Tom Glavine's release from the Atlanta Braves.  There was another letting go this weekend that did not cause the headlines and stir from player and agent but was significant nonetheless.  Colorado Rockies pitcher Jason Grilli was designated for assignment on Saturday.

From Tommy's point of view, there is something positive about this personal development.  His ties have been severed and he's free to do whatever he wants with whatever team he chooses (assuming there are teams that want him back).  Or Tommy Glavine can hang it up and retire and still be considered a classy guy who won 305 games and who was part of one of the best television commercials of the 1990s:

The designation for assignment is not nearly as clean.  When a player is released, he's gone for the team.  Pack up and go.  Your future with us is over.  But when designated for assignment, you're no longer a part of the team's 40-man roster but you are still property of the team.  You are in limbo with no moves to make for the next 10 days.  The team might wish to send you to the minors.  If they do this, they have to waive you.  Another team might put in a claim, at which point your original team can work out a trade and get something back for you.  If the team wants to send you to the minors and you've been an MLB player for 5 years or more, they need your permission to be sent down.  If 10 days pass, the team doesn't trade you and nobody claimed you when you were on waivers, you're a free agent.

In other words, the big difference between the Tom Glavine release and Jason Grilli designation is 10 days.

What's going through Tom Glavine's head?  That's been diagnosed here and here.  Jason Grilli?  Different story. 

Grilli has not earned the millions Tommy Glavine has earned over the last 20 years.  He is earning a guaranteed $800,000 this season and is a free agent once the World Series ends.  He's 32, a full ten years younger than Glavine, but by 32 Glavine never would have been released or designated for assignment because he'd never been injured and had already been the Most Valuable Player in a World Series (1995).  At 32 years old, Tommy Glavine was earning $7 million a year.

Jason Grilli has pitched in a World Series.  He's been a top 10 MLB draft pick.  He's also gone through a devastating arm injury and lost years battling back, something Glavine hasn't experienced until now.  In a way, Jason might be able to provide counsel to Tom Glavine when it comes to personal baseball adversity. 

Comparing the two men, Glavine is the fortunate one here.  His ties to Atlanta are cut forever.  Grilli is probably still in Denver, spending time with his wife and young son; time he hadn't expected to have this season.  It's bittersweet, because Grilli knows that by June 16th, he'll probably be on the move, maybe with his family, maybe not.  His plan is to pitch until he can't pitch anymore.  He knows he can still pitch.  The Rockies probably think so too.  They just don't want him to pitch for them.  (Meanwhile, the Braves told Glavine and the world they don't think their former ace can pitch at all for anybody.)

What is going through Jason Grilli's head?  First, he has to get over the shock and embarrassment of this initial transaction.  When he signed his one-year, $800,000 deal in the off season, the last thing in the world he expected was this.  Imagine having to go home to your wife after work and telling her that you don't have to go to work for the next 10 days because they told you they don't want you anymore.  The saving grace is you're still getting paid.  The embarrassment is having to tell the person you love that your employers think you have failed. 

You might sleep, or try to sleep, and talk to your agent again (you've no doubt spoken more than once since the team told you to pack up and go).  Your stomach isn't as steady as it was in April, when you were basically unbeatable on the mound.  You definitely try to justify why this happened.  Your manager was let go five days before you were.  Maybe the new guy has some different plans.  Maybe the organization is moving in a wildly different direction and you just don't fit in.  You can live with these reasons.  Harder to live with is the fact that you stunk up the joint over the last month.  In April - yeah, you were the man.  In May, you weren't.  You'll try to blame the manager who was fired.  You'll look at yourself and attribute the slump to lack of work.  You had a couple of bad outings and suddenly you were held in disfavor.  Pitching 4 to 5 days a week dropped to 1 day a week.  You got rusty, lost the feel for the ball.  Subsequently, the balls gained a certain feel for the bats of the guys you were throwing at.  They saw your pitches better and enjoyed their time with you.  When can we see you again? they said.

And you end up embarrassed again.  You won't admit that your confidence is shattered.  You'll admit that it's shaken a bit.  But you're a competitor.  You fight.  You fought through the arm injuries.  You fought through a bad start in Detroit last season and ended up pitching very well in Colorado after the trade.  You look back on your fights and take a few deep cleansing breaths.  You begin to fight feeling sorry for yourself.  Don't get negative.  Don't let those feelings take over.  You're no help to you family, to your agent, to any new team if you let the doubts creep in.  Fight them.  Fight them hard. 

You know how you focus during a game?  That's how you come to realize you need to focus like that off the field, at least for the time being; at least until these 10 days pass.  Focus on staying in shape.  Focus on getting rid of the rust.  Focus on staying positive and showing your little son, who doesn't understand any of this, how to overcome adversity.  Focus on making your wife proud so she can honestly tell her family and your family and your friends and anyone else she ever comes in contact with over the next 50 years  that you were better than the system.  You were better because of this move "your" team made.  You're all the man she married and more right now, because of this.  Think like that.  Don't think like a loser.  Don't think this designation was a bad thing.  Let it be good.  Let it be the best professional experience you'll ever go through.  Let it fan the fire inside your belly to perform, to compete, to win.  Focus on that.  Never give the doubt even a moment of your time.  Because you don't have that luxury.  Your family needs you more than the doubt does, not the other way around.  It could be easy to let yourself become swallowed whole by the negative.  Be better.  That's the choice you have to make.  Really, it's the only choice you can make.

I've had the privilege of speaking with Jason quite a few times.  You can hear Jason's take on growing up in baseball (his father used to pitch for Detroit), on faith in himself and in the clubhouse, on pitching and winning and on his future HERE.  And you can see the good things Jason has recently done HERE and more about him HERE.  Once you read and listen, you'll have a better sense of what goes on in the mind of the recently designated.  Then you'll be able to come to your own conclusions as to which is better, the outright release or the 10 days of waiting for your life to begin again.