After Jason Giambi admitted he "was wrong for doing that stuff" in a recent newspaper report, his current employers may reconsider whether they were wrong to give the slugger a seven-year, $120 million contract in 2001.
According to a report in the New York Daily News, Giambi's admission in Friday's USA Today could lead to the Yankees trying again to void his contract if it is ultimately determined that he used illegal drugs after signing him to the deal.
The commissioner's office is investigating Giambi's comments and is expected to summon him to a meeting to discuss them. According to the Daily News, the outcome of that meeting will determine in part how the Yankees proceed.
Giambi told USA Today "what we should have done a long time ago was stand up — players, owners, everybody — and said: 'We made a mistake.' We should have apologized back then and made sure we had a rule in place and gone forward. ... Steroids and all of that was a part of history. But it was a topic that everybody wanted to avoid. Nobody wanted to talk about it."
Giambi had not previously admitted (at least publicly) using steroids. The closest he had come was an unspecific apology during a Yankee Stadium press conference after the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Giambi had told the grand jury investigating the BALCO case that he had used steroids and human growth hormone before signing with the Yankees and while playing for them in 2002 and 2003.
The Yankees had considered ending Giambi's deal after that report surfaced in late 2004.
The first baseman/DH's salary is $21 million for this season and 2008, and the Yanks hold an $22 million option for 2009 with a $5 million buyout clause.
