Now that former Rays skipper Joe Maddon has signed with the Cubs, the Rays find themselves at a philosophical crossroads, writes Buster Olney of ESPN (Insider only). The Rays must decide whether to pursue tampering charges against the Cubs. Per Olney, the Rays thought they were close to signing Maddon to a multi-year extension before he ultimately opted out of his contract. The timing seems suspicious, but it may be difficult to prove tampering.
The Rays have two options. They can either ignore the whiff of wrong doing or pursue an investigation. Major League Baseball has the authority to demand phone and email records from all 30 clubs, so a basic investigation is possible. Other small market teams, tired of being bullied by the big spenders, would ostensibly support an investigation. If tampering is proven, the Cubs could be forced to relinquish a player in return for Maddon. Historically, such returns have been middling. Randy Winn was traded for Lou Piniella, reliever Chris Carpenter was dealt for Theo Epstein, and the pair of Jhan Marinez and Ozzie Martinez were sent to the White Sox for Ozzie Guillen.
- Despite turmoil atop the Rays organization, Ben Zobrist is excited to have his $7.5MM club option exercised, writes Marc Tomkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He expressed faith in GM Matt Silverman along with lieutenants Chaim Bloom and Erik Neander. Zobrist is set to become the first player in Rays franchise history to begin a 10th season with the club.
- The Orioles declined a $17.5MM option for Nick Markakis a few days ago, but they’re still striving to re-sign him, reports Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. One person who expects Markakis to return is manager Buck Showalter. The Orioles can negotiate exclusively with Markakis through Monday night. They also need to decide on a potential qualifying offer, which could depend on the character of their negotiations. After considering his $2MM buyout, the $15.3MM qualifying offer is just a $200K savings over the club option. If the club is confident Markakis will pursue a multi-year deal elsewhere, they may be more inclined to make the offer.
- Baltimore officially declined Nick Hundley’s 2015 option via Twitter. The club is potentially interested in re-signing Hundley at a rate below his $5MM option, tweets Roch Kobatko of MASNsports.com. The 40 man roster now stands at 31 players according to Kubatko (also Twitter). We first learned the Orioles planned to decline the option last Thursday.
Theres no chance Markakis is looking for a one year deal so i assume it would be fairly safe for the O’s to make him a QO, as they want to keep him anyway and if he goes, a draft pick arrives.
The tampering allegations are just sour grapes.
Is that you Joe?!
No its not. Epstein is a devious front office mastermind. THAT is why the sdu) hired him. Maddon is a field mastermind, just not devious though.
I don’t know about mastermind, but Mr. Epstein has surely been devious during his tenure in Boston (such as how he got Kevin Millar out of a signed contract with a Japanese team that took his agent months of negotiating to get); and some things being done in Chicago seem to skirt intent, if not the letter of the law (Epstein of course has a law degree).
I wrote here when it happened that the story of the Rays telling Maddon he had an ‘out’ in his contract made no sense. He and his agent were negotiating a contract extension at the time. His agent has been representing professional athletes for almost 35 years…out of Chicago….and he didn’t know that Maddon had an out? The Rays had to inform Maddon?
I also think that MLBTR is on top of the small-mid market teams getting tired of being pushed around by the large market teams. It’s been brewing for years, and this Maddon thing is going to unite them even more.
Why is it that there is a draft for domestic players but not for international players? How many of those big name players get signed by small-mid market teams? A very small percentage. While the field has been slowly leveling out some, it is hardly level. Didn’t mean the Rockies can’t get into the WS in 2007, the Rays in 2008, or the Royals in 2014…..just means that within 2 years most of their players are gone as those teams couldn’t afford to pay them. The large market teams don’t have that problem.
I hope they start an investigation. What a mean move by Maddon.
How dare he exercise his contractual right!
In my opinion, Maddon was probably thinking either A) “Someone will just fire their manager because I’m better than them.” or B) tampering. Neither of those sound good to me.
the former’s perfectly kosher by baseball rules, though.
How dare he exercise his contractual right that he didn’t even know about until Tampa Bay’s management told him about it!
a contract’s a contract and the opt out was agreed to in advance.
I was being sarcastic. I find it rather ironic that the Rays are thinking about claiming tampering when Maddon wouldn’t have opted out if the team hadn’t told him he could. Neither he nor his agent remembered that clause being in the contract.
apologies for misunderstanding. you hear a lot of things like that said in all seriousness with alarming regularity.
it is what he says… I think Theo Epstein told him about it. See DEVIOUS
The question is whether he violated his contract. How do you know he hasn’t. I sure wouldn’t put it past Epstein or Ricketts to participate.
there’s no question he didn’t. the opt out is pretty black and white… he either exercises it or he doesn’t. He did, he notified the commissioners office of it, and was free to negotiate with anyone at that point.
it’s only tampering if the Cubs and him or his agent are discussion hiring him before he opted out. The Cubs, Maddon’s Agent, and so far MLB have all said the Cubs called the commissioners office to confirm his free agency status before any known negotiation took place.
Your statement, despite its beginning proclamation, expresses doubt. Its also not breaking news that people who have committed wrongdoing, like having “casual” discussions about what they might think about their future, declare innocence.
i fail to see where i express any doubt. i said ‘it’s only tampering if’, then laid out a set of circumstances i pretty obviously don’t believe occurred.
Tampering is possible… simply because it isn’t impossible. There’s literally not a shred of evidence that it happened beyond he said/she said and the old, deeply flawed belief that ‘where there’s smoke there’s fire’.
i express no such thing as doubt, i merely clarify that there is a very narrow definition of tampering. It is, of course, possible… but only because it’s not technically impossible.
But if i’m not clear enough, let’s put it this way : Tampa’s blowing smoke here.
no, it doesn’t express doubt. It acknowledges tampering is possible… but then illustrates how there’s absolutely no evidence to make it even unlikely.
The team informed him of the opt out clause. I don;t see how he or the Cubs did anything wrong.
It was Chris, not Matt Carpenter.
the Cubs actually sent the other Chris Carpenter to the Red Sox.
Was there tampering, probabily. Could it be proved, highly unlikely.
it amazes me that everyone says there was ‘probably’ tampering just because the Rays said it once but have so little certainty of it themselves that they haven’t even filed a formal complaint about it….
the only way the Cubs could have had anything to do with convincing Maddon to opt out was if they somehow knew his contract better than he apparently did… and knew ahead of time Friedman was headed to the Dodgers so the opt out was even in play.
Even us Cubs fans don’t believe Theo’s that good.
I agree with the first part. Folks need to remember that it is innocent until proven guilty not the other way around.
Epstein is so you ought to .. 2 world series in BA STEN, i mean Boston. Wake up and smell teh reality..
Wasn’t the pitcher sent to the Sox named Chris Carpenter?
If the Cubs are found guilty, why don’t they send Edwin Jackson over as a gesture of goodwill in response to the accusations?
You all keep Jackson.
The most plausible scenario I’ve seen mentioned is the Rays informing Maddon of his opt out hoping he’d take it, clearing them of a lame duck manager they probably aren’t signing next off season. They are given a bit of a jump on a reorg.
I’m not sure there’s anything adversarial going on at all.
Unless there’s the most explicit evidence of tampering, this is a tough one for Selig, because historically he has favored two types of teams-the small market teams, and large market teams that have owners who are his favorites. He’s someone firmly focused on the bottom line. He would want to support Tampa, wants the Tampa taxpayers to pay for a new stadium, and would want them compensated. On the other hand, he knows the Cubs need to be successful, and Maddon could help. It would be easier if the “poaching” team were someone like the Yankees or Dodgers or even the Phillies.
I think in the end that if the Rays don’t have a smoking gun then they won’t file a complaint. The end result will be if the Rays truly believe there was tampering then all they will do is be less inclined to trade with the Cubs.
I doubt the Rays even try to do anything about it.