No one is wasting months of resources on something this dumb. It's one thing to "make an offer".
It is quite another to spend months negotiating so that they can purposefully fail in order to somehow declare victory. Because somehow Sox management got the idea that people in February would say "HOLY SHIT, we finished 2nd in the Machado bidding! I am going to buy some season tickets now. I mean if they had finished 3rd in the Machado bidding, no way, but second? They must be serious!"
And they played this game with Machado and his agent for four months, knowing if they found out it could damage future dealings with both the agent and other players, but it was worth it, because 2nd generates ticket sales.
I want to know who went out and bought tickets after the Machado failure.
Now I say this knowing the gravity of this statement, but this might be your most ridiculous argument on Soxtalk so far.