Gil Meche: Saying no to $12.4 million

Finally, “the search for a true role model in modern pro sports” is over, said the Florida Times-Union in an editorial. He’s a relatively obscure pitcher named Gil Meche, who was under contract to earn $12.4 million for the Kansas City Royals in the coming season. Meche announced last week he would retire and forfeit the money. Why? Meche’s shoulder injuries have made him ineffective, leading the 32-year-old Louisianan to say, “I didn’t feel like I deserved it.” Under baseball’s system of guaranteed contracts, said Tyler Kepner in The New York Times, Meche would have gotten paid for the final year of his five-year contract just by reporting to spring training. But taking a king’s ransom from the Royals to sit on the bench “just wasn’t the right thing to do,” says Meche. “Once I started to realize I wasn’t earning my money, I felt bad.”

Stop the applause, said Kevin Baumer in BusinessInsider.com. A truly committed team player would have had surgery on his shoulder, undergone a grueling rehab, then worked “his butt off” to help the team as a relief pitcher. The truth is that Meche’s “love of the game had clearly eroded” in recent years, and with $43 million already pocketed over the previous four years, he clearly felt he “had enough dough.” If Meche felt guilty, said Rob Neyer in ESPN.com, it’s hardly surprising. He earned three times more than the next-highest-paid player on the small-market Royals, in return for a lackluster 29-39 record over four seasons. Meche’s $55 million contract was “ridiculous the moment the Royals offered it”—a reality even Meche couldn’t stomach anymore.

Actually, said Joe Posnanski in SI.com, Meche brought “a kind of value to the Royals that is difficult to measure.” He was a mentor to younger players, and inspired the team with his determination to pitch through pain even after his shoulder started to give out. Meche’s final act of grace and loyalty proves beyond any doubt that “the Royals signed the right man.” This is bigger than baseball, said Joanna Molloy in the New York Daily News. From actors to investment bankers to socialite hotel heiresses, we’ve become accustomed to “famous people getting big bucks for very little.” What separates Meche from that pack is the increasingly rare quality of self-respect. By “showing our kids what integrity looks like, he’s earned our respect, too.”

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