“What does anything he said have to do with baseball? And what does suspending him for his free speech accomplish?”
He is the well paid public face of the franchise. What he says in a public forum matters.
No one is suspending his free speech. Guillen is free to say what he wants, and the Marlins ownership is free to react. Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequence. You should study up on the 1st amendment.
You said just what I was thinking. We are all free to say whatever we want, but there can be consequences to what we say.
If you go into work, and publicly call your boss a mother fletcher in a staff meeting, for example, or openly compare his management style to Hilter, in earshot of others, you may well not have that job anymore. You are free to say things, but consequences can happen if you say offensive things.