G&T

I realize he doesn't have a "source" but the Harper trip explanation makes some sense. The Phillies glowing review of the meeting with Harper was a very stupid play with Boras on the other side of the table. If it were true, then Boras would see the opening to ask for anything he wanted. But the second part makes no sense because either the Phillies have the best offer or they don't. And if the Machado team is building up the Sox offer, then the Phillies didn't submit a better offer. Leaving that aside, if there is any truth to the information, it's all bad for Harper who seems to be on the back burner for both teams. I'm very curious to know how that Phillies meeting actually went.

I'm not intending to question their tactics, I am saying this isn't evidence of some broader measure of accountability. I guess the best to put it is, if it were Mack, would he have done what you said and dodged it? I don't know the answer. And I think Parkey was an easy target. I guess good for Nagy for not shying away.

Well doing something is better than saying something, but I'm not sure how to answer that question when the assumption I'm making is that he will be gone regardless. It's easy to talk tough to a guy you don't want around. I wonder what he would say or do if it were Mack.

Great. But they need to close the deal then. This is also why I don't think money is the problem, it's the opt outs that will kill the deal.

This isn't accountability. They are dumping Parkey anyway and this is even more convenient than missing a game winning field goal in the playoffs. And what does Parkey care? He knows he's out.

Woops. I was off doing actual work, which was dumb. As I said, you can engage in puffery which is easy in these circumstances.

Check your ethical rules. This is from Wisconsin ethical rules and it's the same in New York: SCR 20:4.1 Truthfulness in statements to others. (a) In the course of representing a client a lawyer shall not knowingly: (1) make a false statement of a material fact or law to a 3rd person. None of this matters because agents aren't acting in roles as legal counsel. They are advisors.

Lawyers can't. But these people aren't lawyers, so no ethics apply. There are issues of credibility going forward, but that's not an ethics issue. For the record, a lawyer can engage in "puffery" which requires some level truth. So if the Cardinals call Lozano and ask about Machado, Lozano can say that another team is interested, even if the Cardinals have no meaningful interest. That's a pretty low bar in these types of negotiations where every team is going to make some inquiry regardless of how serious they are.

The teams know what they can offer, and know what the player wants from them. The leaks are usually to drive a fan base. The more pissed Soxtalk gets, the better the leverage for the player, which is why Hahn hates misinformation. Everyone here is happy about 8 years, so doesn't Lazano call Hahn and say, "I don't know where that report came from, but gee, everyone loves the idea of eight years. I'd hate to explain at Soxfest why you wouldn't give another year." I'm not sure I'm interpreting this correctly, but it seems to make sense. Edit: it is also possible a deal is done, and the circle of knowledge is starting to grow, which leads to more leaks. But i can't square the Nightengale tweet with that interpretation. But he's an idiot, so who knows.

Yeah actually he would. You don’t need a formal offer to know what a team will agree to.

Ok. Your post clearly treated it as new information. And who knows if they made an offer to Harper over the weekend?

Might want to check the date on the articles.

If you read the article it seems to be the Phillies. But what’s weird is the tweet says they would go higher but the article doesn’t. That’s two different implications as to where the negotiations stand.

Love it. So bad and so awesome.

No. Nuts stay on the table. First lesson in negotiating is you might lose your nuts if you aren't careful.

Once you put something on the table, it doesn't come off.

As far as the Yankees go, it seems to me that Andujar won't bring his full value right now since every team knows they are unloading him to get Machado. If they really wanted to trade Andujar to get Machado, then make the trade early in the off season and throw a pile of money at Machado. At this point, it just seems unlikely that they would go in that direction.

Right, no deadline is ever final, no matter how serious someone claims it to be. But for Manny, at some point you run the risk of the Phillies signing Harper and maybe losing leverage. And if I'm the Sox, then there might be smaller moves to be made (if not Harper) based on getting Manny that the Sox won't otherwise make. Anyway, my point is that getting to a deal usually involves moving with some urgency. That's just the nature of negotiation, unrelated to setting a firm deadline as a strategy. The future is unpredictable, and the sports industry moves quickly.

It has nothing to do with the public. If you don't have a deadline, then nothing happens, so sometimes it helps to set soft deadlines. In my experience, negotiations have a shelf life. Eventually everyone hates each other and the deal, which is when the deal closes. Also, the longer a deal sits, the more likely something unpredictable happens. So you can only let this go for so long. And the Sox will want to push a deadline so they can move on to other targets, which should be in Manny's interest no matter who he signs with.

Meh, that's kinda true, but money might be the thing that the Sox are willing give. They are trying to sign him for a package that works for their franchise. Part of that is money, part is opt outs, part is no trade clauses, options, suites on the road, etc. In other words, it's easy to say that Machado wants $325M, but what is he willing to give up to get it? Trade protections? Opt outs? The Sox might be willing to go 10/$350, but they need flexibility to trade him if the deal isn't working out. Does Manny want a full no-trade too so he can negotiate a payment to waive the clause? This is how deals get complicated and take time to complete. I guess I should add that a player might only care about final dollars and the rest is window dressing. For the Sox, as a rebuilding organization, the money has to be high, but the player has to feel like they can leave if the team isn't competing. I think that's where this deal is right now. That's a tough hill to climb.

It doesn't matter what the other team is offering. There are goals for each organization, and the deal is more complicated than money alone. All a team needs to know is that they are still in the game, and the only way to know that is the negotiations keep moving forward. When someone tells Ken Rosenthal that Lazano isn't returning calls (which was Monday's news) that tells me someone wasn't in the neighborhood of an acceptable deal, and I figure that was the Yankees.

The people dealing with Jay might not be the same that are working on Manny. Totally different level of contract with major ramifications. Also, when a deal is official, usually a lot of people will need to know. I'm guessing insurance, HR, and whoever else in an organization that need to do paperwork. The circle of knowledge grows, so it is best to just start telling anyone who asks since you can't keep it secret anyway. With this Manny information, I am guessing he is hearing a second or third hand account from someone hearing rumors in the organization. Putting any stock in actual numbers or years is pointless. Of course, I have found it interesting that he also had the scoop on the seven years from the Sox. So it is possible that this is curated information, but that number is so low that the Phillies would ignore it.

This is an extremely misleading headline. There's nothing new about Machado and the Phillies. Hell, the Phillies aren't even meeting with Harper until Saturday.

First, this isn't a "plant" in my view, it's just a background leak. Just throwing a bone to Heyman so he does a solid in the future. Second, the Yankees aren't going to give Machado $300M. So how does this tweet push the Yankees to do anything? They aren't going to outbid everyone at this point. If they wanted to outbid, then it would have been done at the Winter Meetings. Third, Machado knows where the Yankees are in terms of money. This "formal offer" stuff is nonsense in that regard. There are plenty of other terms that might be in a formal offer sheet, but either they will meet the price or not, and right now they won't.

Eh, if i had to speculate, this came from the Yankees. It is similar to what the reporter on the Score said this morning from his yankees people. My feeling is that the Yankees believe he won't go elsewhere for less than $300M, and are gambling on that. If Machado blinks, then they can get him at a greatly reduced price, since it will show that he won't play for anyone else. If it doesn't work, well, they don't really need him anyway. You can start to see why the Sox got Yonder and Jay. And I'll refer to my previous post about these over simplified concepts of negotiations.