It gets uglier
December 10, 2003 in Uncategorized
From Hohler today:
Sources familiar with the talks said Garciaparra rejected a four-year, $60 million offer from the Sox in spring training. Garciaparra asked for $68 million, and when the Sox declined to split the $2 million difference in average annual salary, he opted to wait until after the season to renew negotiations.
By then, the Sox sensed a substantial change in the market and altered their proposal to $48 million over four years. Garciaparra not only rebuffed the offer but considered the package so inadequate that his camp apparently considered the talks near impasse.
“We’ve been told to pursue alternatives,” Henry said.
General manager Theo Epstein, who struck a more conciliatory tone than Henry, indicated that Garciaparra should not have been blindsided, as Tellem suggested, when he read in a newspaper last week on his honeymoon in Hawaii that Henry had sat down with Rodriguez. Epstein said he explained the situation to Tellem after the team’s contacts with Texas first became public.
“Arn asked me what was going on with Texas, and I said Texas had made overtures to us, which was correct,” Epstein said. “We felt obliged to listen because we weren’t sure we could sign Nomar.”
“Our first choice was — and is — to sign Nomar,” Epstein said, “but if we can’t, we need to pursue alternatives.”
If this is accurate, then it’s too bad. Seems to me that either Tellem is brainwashing Nomar, or Nomar has seriously overestimated his value.
Frankly, after the events of the past couple of days, I’m not sure this is repairable. If it isn’t, what an ugly way for the Red Sox/Nomar relationship to end.
