11:43am: Bastian tweets some clarification, noting that Hagadone didn't "win" his grievance, but rather the involved parties worked out an agreement to resolve the pending grievance.
9:57am: Indians left-hander Nick Hagadone has won the grievance filed on his behalf by the Major League Baseball Players Association, reports MLB.com's Jordan Bastian. The deal is highly significant for both sides, as Hagadone gains a hefty 94 days of service time (jumping from 1.033 to 1.127), and the Indians will gain another option on Hagadone. He'd previously been out of options but can now be sent to the minor leagues in 2014 (All links to Twitter).
The source of Hagadone's grievance was a self-inflicted hand injury following a poor outing back in July 2012. Hagadone was subsequently optioned to the minor leagues and placed on the disqualified list rather than placed on the Major League disabled list with his injury. In doing so, the Indians assured that he would not be paid while missing time due to his injury and also would not accumulate service time. As Bastian reports above, he will now be compensated for that time on the DQ list after winning the grievance.
As Bastian further notes (on Twitter), Hagadone is one of six left-handers vying for a spot in Cleveland's bullpen. A quick glance at the most recent Super Two cutoff shows that this additional service time is crucial to Hagadone. The 28-year-old can now potentially qualify as a Super Two player and be eligible for arbitration following the season, should he make the Opening Day roster and stick in the Majors all year.
Hagadone was excellent for the Indians in Triple-A last season, posting a 2.51 ERA with 12.8 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 in 32 1/3 innings. However, his control problems were magnified in the Majors (6.0 BB/9), and his strikeout rate dropped (8.6 K/9), and the result was an unsightly 5.46 ERA in 31 1/3 innings for Cleveland. Those trends aren't exactly new for the lefty, who has a 5.59 ERA in 67 2/3 Major League innings despite excellent minor league numbers.
Hagadone was originally acquired by the Indians along with Justin Masterson and Bryan Price in the trade that sent Victor Martinez to the Red Sox. Boston picked Hagadone 55th overall in the 2007 draft as compensation for the loss of free agent Alex Gonzalez.
Francona’s not a big fan of Hagadone after last year, when they brought him up, and he basically gave Tito attitude about how he wanted to pitch.
You should re-read these comments more carefully. Nothing ever changed.
Sorry, but no way
HagaDONT will not be an option this year for The Indians. Tribe’s bullpen already has two lefties in the mix in Scrabble and Josh Outman. Hagadone will be hanging around AAA Columbus, and will maybe get packaged in a trade. Some team will have interest in a lefty that throws in the high 90’s