mtutiger

IDK, Lynn Henning literally invented the AJ Hinch opt-out of thin-air.... knowing that information, it boggles my mind that any fan would "engage" there, yet many still do.

Why is setting a high price for Eduardo's services a mistake? Like, I don't know that we want the new PBO going out there and signaling to the rest of the league that he can be rolled into accepting a Dawel Lugo-esque return either.

To put it another way, the target audience should make them wear it, in terms of future engagement, when they report stuff that isn't accurate. I know it isn't their responsibility to worry about the teams or discussions smooth or whatever.... but as a fan, it stands to reason that reporters reporting stuff that isn't accurate, or engaging in innuendo, should probably lead to criticism of said reporters. Or maybe questioning their wisdom in the future when they report or tweet.

Yep. And I suspect the relative antipathy that Harris has already generated among some of the beat writers locally during his short tenure has something to do with the fact that the Tigers don't exactly give out a ton of information. Which may be good from a trade secret perspective but not great from a content generation perspective.

They are getting absolutely zero heat for it, but I think the beat writers and national media kinda should wear this too because they were instrumental in expectation setting. Things like JP Morosi tweeting over and over again about how many teams were interested in ERod (which appears to not have been the case at all), or Boob Nightengale talking about how both Lorenzen and ERod were definitely being traded, etc. Or even just the weeks and weeks of speculation by the local beat writers. Which kinda gets to one of the takeaways I have after a year of watching this front office: just because a writer (locally or nationally) speculates something or spreads a rumor about the Tigers, that doesn't mean they know what the hell they are talking about. In fact, I'm not really sure I can recall a transaction made under Harris where rumors and innuendo preceded the move. If fans don't want to end up surprised or shocked, maybe they should stop giving deference to the writers who throw out scenarios because I'm not sure they know anymore than we do, at least about possible trades or free agent moves.

I'm not sure I understand why giving a little bit of deference to the team-side explanation of what went down here is a bad thing. Or is seen as some sort of personality flaw by some fans. The existence of Bob Quinn or other bad GMs doesn't really change that for me.

This seems better directed at the fans who have already set the narrative on what happened and, subsequently, are calling Harris the next Bob Quinn.

Which gets to the fact that "other options" aren't contractually obligated to remain "other options" and are free to pivot to different trade pieces as well. In the Tigers case, I think the market for JV may have been a factor too... his deal was a major logjam to getting something done, but it took a lot of time (almost 24 hours, I believe) to get that resolved. Once it did and the Dodgers were lined up, there wasn't a lot of room for error for getting it done from a time perspective.

As far as Cisnero and Shreve are concerned, yeah, it would have been nice to have seen them traded but, particularly with Shreve who hasn't been all that good this year, I'm not sure that the return would have been that great. With Eddie, the contract situation plus what happened last year could have limited his market, that seems reasonable to me. Or maybe took what Baltimore or Cincy or other possibilities and made what they would offer come in below expectations. And if that is the case, and he completed a subpar deal, I just don't think the fans would be happy there either. But we don't have the inside info and the tendency is to just blame Scott Harris for not meeting the expectations set by the beat writers leading up to the deadline, so here we are.

If there were deals lined up but the return was below what they felt he should fetch, should they have completed it? I can tell you that I could see a world where Harris trades ERod to one of the backup plan teams and, because the other options placed a different valuation than the Dodgers, the fanbase is blaming Harris for not getting enough back for Rodriguez. Which gets to the idea that had been discussed a couple of times yesterday... holding the line and not just selling for pennies on the dollar, ala JD Martinez

I'm not sure how double or triple checking makes it impossible for a party to a contract to change their mind at the last minute, or unexpectedly.

I just want to understand what the Tigers (or the Dodgers) were supposed to do, exactly, to shelter themselves from this particular risk in a negotiation like this. Particularly if the Dodgers were the only real fit in terms of Eddie's contract. It's easy to just put it on Harris for not asking about his wife's thoughts, but in a situation where you are relying on a party to waive a section of a contract, you can't really get around having to place some level of faith or trust in that party following through. The heat comes with the job, but I would like to think we are sophisticated enough around here to be more interested in why this has happened versus just immediately pointing fingers while not having all the details. For the most part, I guess not.

As has been discussed in this thread already, it's entirely possible that ERod may have been on board with this initially and ended up changing his mind as the process went on. Outside of forcing him into a separate contractual obligation to waive his no-trade clause on his existing contract with the Tigers, I'm not entirely clear how you remove the part of the process where you have to take the player at their word.

Speaking from my experience as an employee, I'd rather my supervisor not ask something like that, tbh.

It may be the case, it seems plausible enough. If so, good on Scott Harris for choosing to wear it

His explanation makes sense, but he really trashed his credibility by inventing the AJ opt-out rumours

Sportz didn't even want to trade ERod not that long ago. Just bizarre... no ideological consistency whatsoever

Is Lynn Henning reputable at this point?

I dont necessarily see it that way. And I dont think the players in the clubhouse see it that way. We'll leave it at that. We've flogged the Jeimer horse to death, I'm not going to exhume the debate over ERod's personal life either.

I do think we, collectively, underestimated the complications presented by ERod's contract. Which is a differentiator from some of the other pitchers traded, some of whom were pure rentals.

I'm wary of reading too much into the ERod extension situation, but I definitely do think people underestimate the idea that he would stick around under the right circumstances. Especially given that the org did right by him with whatever happened in 2022 in his personal life. I do hope they work something out. He's a positive to have with this young pitching staff for a few more years.

And getting maximal value means taking risks, sticking your neck out. And that comes with a downside. It's hard to strike that right balance of needing to acquire talent and not just being rolled by orgs into accepting inferior talent. It is entirely possible the Dodgers were the only ones who were offering what they felt he was worth.

There you go

Is this the same Lynn Henning who invented the AJ Hinch opt out clause out of thin air?

I'd like to hear an explanation from JP Morosi... he had a .000 batting average this cycle