Major League Baseball

Honest Affeldt returned $500K

Published May. 15, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

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Sam Gardner

What would you do if you got your paycheck and realized that you’d been spotted an extra $500,000? What if someone told you that you were within your legal rights to keep it?

Would you give it back?

Because that’s exactly what San Francisco Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt did in 2010 after he realized that a potentially expensive clerical error had awarded him a massive unexpected bonus.

Affeldt, who has been in the majors since coming up with the Kansas City Royals in 2002 and will have made an estimated $30 million as a pro when his current deal ends in 2016, wrote about the surprise payday in his book, To Stir A Movement, and then discussed it with Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.

According to Affeldt, he was set to make $4 million in 2010, but when his contract was rewritten after receiving a two-year contract extension, the amount was typed as $4.5 million instead. Affeldt says he initially signed the contract without noticing the mistake.

After he realized the error, Affeldt addressed it with the players association, agent Michael Moye and Giants assistant general manager Bobby Evans. All three reportedly told Affeldt that he was entitled to the additional $500,000. Moye advised him, however, to return the cash, and Affeldt obliged.

"I talked to (Evans) the next day and said, 'I can't take that money,' " Affeldt told the Chronicle. " 'I won't sleep well at night knowing I took that money, because every time I open my paycheck I'll know it's not right.' "

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