Last month San Diego Padres outfielder Tommy Pham was stabbed in the lower back during an altercation outside an establishment in San Diego. No organs were damaged, but he required surgery and stitches to close the wound. The altercation occurred when Pham asked two people arguing near his car to move away.
Earlier this week Pham filed a lawsuit against Pacers Showgirls International, the strip club where the stabbing occurred, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The lawsuit alleges he suffered "catastrophic injuries, which have and will continue to cause him significant economic damage, including but not limited to his earning capacity as an elite professional baseball player."
There have not been any arrests made related to the stabbing and a hearing is scheduled for June 25. Here are more details on the lawsuit from the San Diego Union-Tribune report:
According to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Diego Superior Court, the fight outside Pacers left Pham "trapped" inside the club. The suit alleges the club's private security "escalated the risk" to Pham "by participating in the fight and antagonizing" the fight participants.
The suit also alleges club employees did not contact law enforcement "or take any reasonable measures to mitigate" the dangers. Due to unspecified "incidents of violence by third parties" that had occurred at the club in the past, the lawsuit alleges Pacers should have been aware of the possibility of a similar incident and taken measures to prevent it.
Following the Oct. 12 incident, Pham released a statement thanking the staff at UC San Diego Health and the San Diego Police Department. He added, "(while) it was a very traumatic and eye-opening experience for me, I'm on the road to recovery and I know I'll be back to my offseason training routine in no time."
Next Wednesday, Dec. 2, is the non-tender deadline, which is the deadline for teams to offer their pre-arbitration and arbitration-eligible players a contract for next season. They don't have to sign their players before the deadline, but they do have to make an offer, and players who do not receive an offer become free agents.
Pham is projected to earn approximately $8 million through arbitration next year, and with payrolls coming down around the league amid the pandemic, the Padres could non-tender him if they're concerned about his status for next season. Any doubt about his ability to be healthy and perform might lead to a non-tender.
This past season Pham, 33 in March, hit .211/.312/.312 with three home runs and was limited to 31 games by a hand injury. When healthy in 2019, he authored a .273/.369/.450 batting line with 21 homers. The Padres are fairly deep in outfielders and might be able to replace Pham internally should they non-tender him.
