chasfh

Yes, totally fair. It would have to be zeitgeist reaction on our part, though, since we are not unionized as media consumers and can’t bring it up at the next meeting. 😁

If Eduardo’s agent was leading everyone along that a deal could be completed with LA all the way up to the last minute, before his client pulled out the rug at the last minute—which we can already reasonably assume—and Harris was getting garbage offers from everyone else—which seems fairly likely—then I would find it hard to blame Harris for anything here. After all, he had to trust that Mato knew what he was doing, and that Mato was dealing with the full faith that Eduardo was on board to go to LA during the process.

Why should they wear anything? The media have no responsibility to help keep the avenues of trade discussion among teams smooth by being circumspect about how they report on it. They are doing exactly what they are being paid to do: drive engagement and ultimately revenue for their employers, the media vehicles, by writing things that interest people. This is one of those circumstances in which it is up to us, the target audience, to filter through the media noise, pick up on what seems reasonable, and ignore or discard the rest.

We are talking about it now, though, and isn’t this fun? We’re having a good time, aren’t we? Are we not entertained? I’m being serious here.

There’s the key word. Outside of the Dodgers, I can envision Harris getting nothing but lowball offers for Eduardo because of any combination of the uncertainty of what Eduardo’s situation will be after the season, the Tigers’ history of accepting garbage returns for good players, and the softness of Eduardo’s topline July performance (5.66 ERA in July). To your point, we will probably never know what the returns on those other (if any) offers were.

What we don’t know yet was whether Eduardo was on board with going while the deal was being done, until he wasn’t. Dodgers PBO Andrew Friedman had some interested comments on the incident in the Athletic: “We didn’t expect (what happened) at all,” Friedman said. “We hadn’t known one way or the other. We thought with having a lot of his ex-teammates and guys he’s played with, our place in the standings, I thought we would be very desirable. … We never got a chance to talk to Eduardo. But we talked to his agent numerous times. We respect that he had this right and he exercised it. Obviously would’ve loved for him to join what we have going here. But it’s hard for us to argue with family reasons.” There’s a lot to unpack in this paragraph, but my takeaway is that his agent was the lead on the deal—which implies that Eduardo was in on it, since an agent who works against his client’s wishes is malpracticing—and that last minute some family-related reason killed it.

Ironically, if Eduardo stays with the Tigers, his cost certainty might make him easier to deal at next year’s deadline.

Jeimer Candelario went 4-for-5 for the Cubs tonight. 🦆🦆🦆

I wonder whether the deal might have been predicated on the idea that Eduardo would waive his opt-out to stay with the Dodgers for three more years—which, coincidentally, would lead to the optimum haul for us, as well as cost certainty for the Dodgers—and something happened in Eduardo’s world that nixed that. Maybe his wife, like someone said. Or maybe he would have been OK with two months in LA but not three more years. Just another possibility to speculate on. Who knows.

Now THIS is a deadline deal that I heartily approve of! 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

Racist. 😉

I agree with your timeline, although had it collapsed days ago, I'm pretty sure Harris would not have blabbed that to the media.

Not defending Harris failure to trade Eduardo as being a good thing—it's definitely not—but I think most of us understood that he was always going to be a more difficult trade than Lorenzen was. The deal we signed saddled us with a guy who would be a rental if he pitched well for a new team, and four more years at 60-some million if he either did poorly or went down Tommy John-style. That's a big risk for a buying team. I also wonder what role Eduardo's agent played in this whole drama. It's not as though Harris was dealing directly with Eduardo during the negotiations—he was almost certainly dealing through Eduardo's agent, who might have been on a very different page than he should have been throughout this. He might have been leading Harris to pursue a deal with LA for reasons such as he thought he could sell it through to the pitcher. And as we learned during last year's ghosting incident, the agent, Gene Mato, is not exactly the most high-powered buttoned-down agent in the game.

OK, now I don't know what I want regarding Eduardo Rodriguez. I don't want six years of him. I don't really even want four years of him. I don't want Harris to go overboard Avila-style trying to justify not trading him by overpaying him. I don't want Eduardo to walk away for nothing. In any event, I'm going to get something I don't want here.

It's official. 😞

So-called media professional gets schooled by amateurs.

Looks like Baseball's Best Fans™ are only too glad to see Flaherty go

Turdley strikes again

The Big Kahuna:

Sht's getting tight ... http 22841857?s=20

Shedding $30 million in one fell swoop this winter should help.

Someone likes Scott Harris. This is the kind of thing that helps get decent players interested in coming to Detroit.

Seems to be ... at the moment ... Let's talk in half an hour or so.