Left-hander Cesar Cabral was involved in a pair of transactions last week, first getting claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays from the Rays before Tampa re-claimed him two days later. As Richard Griffin of The Toronto Star explains, a handshake agreement between Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos and Red Sox GM Theo Epstein may have impacted the moves.
When the Jays hired former Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell to be their new manager this offseason, the deal apparently came with a "non-compete" handshake agreement between the two clubs, preventing Toronto from selecting Boston players in the Rule 5 Draft. Cabral was selected by the Rays from the Sox in the Rule 5 Draft, but the Jays insist they were "playing by the rules" when they claimed him last week because at that time he was property of Tampa, not Boston.
A source tells Griffin that the original waiver claim (Jays taking Cabral from the Rays) may have been rescinded because of the handshake agreement, explaining why he ended up back with Tampa before Toronto could ever see him pitch in their uniform. It's unclear who exactly would have rescinded the claim if true; did the Jays back off or did MLB intervene?
Cabral, a 22-year-old lefty reliever, must stay on the Rays' 25-man roster all season or be placed on waivers. If he goes unclaimed, the Red Sox can take him back for half of the original $50K Rule 5 Draft fee.
What? All this for a 50k prospect. Who cares!!!
because teams do not take, handle, or give away prospects lightly. It is not unheard of for an initially unheralded minor leaguer/prospect to blossom in to a big league asset. Part of being a good GM is to manage those potential assets.
That’s true, but, Richard Griffin rarely has a clue as to what he’s talking about. A true mouth-breathing tinfoil-wearing writer.
That’s certainly true. I wonder if we will hear more insinuations from him regarding Bautista and PEDs this coming season.
Wrong Star writer.
yeah, that guys a cox
Johan Santana was a Rule 5.
Josh Hamilton was a Rule 5.
Roberto Clemente was a Rule 5.
AA playing dirty… I like it
He’s brilliant. Scares me as a Sox fan how good Toronto will be in a couple years if he keeps spending big in the international market.
Oh and his over 18 ERA in 4 innings pitched and 11 BB is worth all this, give him back to the Jays pls.
Sorry but I gave stats on the wrong guy. There are two guys with the same name that our with the Red Sox that baseball reference indicates, sorry.
But they can have that other guy to if they want. He’s nothing special either.
Although his 2010 season was not bad.
OH MY GOD! WE GET IT!
I wonder if this sort of agreement is common when one team hires a coach from or if this is Theo being creative.
Probably a bit of both. I imagine there’s got to be some kind of quid pro quo whenever one team wants to hire a coach that’s under contract with another team.
especially within the same division
Theo used to be creative until he just opened up the vault and handed out 140 million to Crawford and 160+ million to Agon.
I’m not really sure how being creative and having money to spend are mutually exclusive.
Theo wasn’t “creative” enough to pay an underachieving 36 yr old player $51 million over 3 yrs.
And no one see’s anything wrong with this? You know ppl would be up in arms if the Yankees did it. There’ve been a lot of “interesting” not so by the book moves done by the Sox of late. They haven’t “broken any rules” but then again neither do the Yanks and that doesn’t stop ppl from using words like “evil”.
Considering how much people have been screaming all offseason about the Red Sox breaking the rules by not signing Gonzalez right away I’d say most people see us in the same boat, buddy.
The Evil Empire moniker is going to stick because it was perfect and hilarious for the time. But believe me, pretty much anything that the Red Sox or yanks do that someone thinks is sketchy, the other team would be called the same for doing the same thing.
As for this, I’m sticking with my point that I think everyone sees a quid pro quo here. Toronto got a Red Sox coach who was under contract, the Red Sox in turn got a breather from Toronto. Trade.
They’re both “evil” as far as I’m concerned.
Wait. The Yanks have been creative?
They’ve been creatively putting together a fat rotation….er, I mean Phat.
No, i mean fat.
I’ll tell you what: Soriano’s contract was very creative.
because no one cares if you’re dirty or cheat when you don’t win. .
Ben Johnson was the best sprinter during his time, he finished first, tested positive and the world went nuts.
If he had come in 4th would anyone really care?? Would he have even been tested?
I don’t think anyone really cares if Theo “games the system” by signing Gonzalez after opening season. I guess he doesn’t want to payout as much luxury tax as a certain other team in NY.
For what it’s worth.. Is it really any different than draft picks telling certain teams that they want more from most teams trying to gain the system and get picked by a certain team, or the handshake agreement Boston and Ryan Westmoreland mad before he signed with them agreeing not to be traded by the team?
Is it even any different than Bob Watson interrupting a game at Yankee stadium to make a useless uniform check on Terry francona even during a crucial period of the game?
Point is there are always going to be things like this that both teams will see as biased, or could be seen as biased and could be stretching the rules a bit. The Andrew Miller contract being another.
There is no such thing as a handshake agreement. Just ask Carlos Boozer.
Doesn’t it depend on if the other hand is behind the back with the fingers crossed, or have the “rules” changed?
I’m sure AA would have called no crossies, double crossies, take backs or tradesies.
Stamped it, double locked it! I hate those damn Indian givers!