10:30pm: Ken Rosenthal reports that Furcal, his wife, and his agent Paul Kinzer met with the A’s in Oakland today. He received the full tour. They may discuss financial terms tomorrow. The Giants and a mystery team are also said to be in the mix. However, MLB.com’s Chris Haft learned that Kinzer hasn’t spoken with the Giants in two days.
2:56pm: I exchanged emails with Yancen Pujols, sports editor at the El Caribe newspaper. He reminded me that the author of their article, Rafael Fellito Ortiz, quoted Furcal himself regarding offers from the A’s and Mets. So the unanswered question here is why Furcal said these things.
9:23am: Let’s sort out the facts involving free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal.
- Reports about Furcal from yesterday from El Caribe and Impacto Deportivo have been dismissed. There has been no four-year, $48MM offer from the A’s, no four-year, $52MM offer from the Braves, and no interest from the Mets. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman says the Braves wouldn’t be in a position to make an offer unless they dealt Yunel Escobar or Kelly Johnson first.
- Three teams have made offers for Furcal, at least one of them for four years according to Dylan Hernandez. The A’s and Giants seem to be in the lead, while the Dodgers are slipping out of the picture. Hernandez says they’re "reluctant to even match the three-year, $39 million contract he completed this year."
- Susan Slusser expects negotiations for Furcal to drag into December.
- The third team making an offer seems to be the "surprise team." That team is not the Mets, and probably not the Dodgers, Reds, or Braves. Brown wondered if it could be the Cubs, Orioles, or Cardinals.
