It’s fight night at the Winter Meetings, maybe out of boredom

I had sort of bought into the magic of the Winter Meetings there for a second, and I know better. These haven’t been a thing for some time and yet many a writer show up thinking that deals will take place in the lobby or the bar where they can witness them come together over drunken arguments between GMs. It’s not the 1980s anymore and Dallas Green and Gene Michael or whoever else aren’t throwing back a bathtub of scotch and deciding they hate their centerfielder because they can’t remember his name anymore.

At least some people are finding ways to entertain themselves:

To fill in the backstory, early in the day good ol’ Boob had tweeted out that the Cubs were basically out of the Shohei Ohtani three-legged race. Later in the day, in USA Today, it was written that the Cubs had balked at the $50 million for 10 years deal that it would take to get Ohtani to even talk to a club. Apparently, Mr. Hoyer didn’t take kindly to that sort of thing.

There’s only two reasons Hoyer would be upset at Nightengale over this and neither are positive for Cubs fans. One, Hoyer thought he had some sort of confidentiality with Nightengale, which would make Hoyer a Grade-A moron. Two, Hoyer was upset that Nightengale was removing the veil that the Cubs merely wanted to appear in the race to capture Ohtani’s signature without really wanting to actually sign him. The baseball version of just looking busy. Because every baseball fan has known for a long time now that $50 million per year was merely the buy-in to get into the room. It is not likely what he’ll sign for. If the Cubs were unwilling to match even the entrance fee, then they were never serious about the whole thing, Which given how Tom Ricketts operates, is more likely to be the truth than not. But that doesn’t mean the Cubs want their fans to know that, especially when they’ve burned through what was once a meaty season-ticket holder waiting list.

While Nightengale bounces between a total stooge for GMs and agents, and just a complete airhorn, generally his info comes straight from the mouth of someone involved in the actual negotiations. He may be a tool of those individuals, but that info comes from somewhere. Hoyer appears to be pissy that it’s totally outed his con.

Meanwhile, here’s some pure baseball writer ooze.

There’s nothing baseball fans love than reading people who are paid to talk about baseball and get paid to watch baseball bitch about how hard their job is for a couple months per year. Olney isn’t getting spoon-fed info about the biggest free agent in history, so he’s moaning about how it’s “bad for baseball.” Don’t know, but it seems like fans are still pretty engaged, even if Olney has to struggle to come up with something to write about today.

When has Ohtani ever been an open book? He never talks to local media and rarely talks to national media. So why would he turn his free agency into a spinoff of “The Bachelor?” Pretty obvious he’s a private person, enough that he doesn’t want the media all up in his business.

And there’s plenty of reasons, the first being that Ohtani and/or his reps know what a good portion of fans tend to think when they hear about certain numbers and offers being rejected. Yeah, it’s hard for all of us to comprehend telling a team that $52 million a year or whatever it’s going to be isn’t enough, but we’re not also on the receiving end of a $55 or $60 million a year offer coming the next week. We’re also not the most unique baseball player of all-time.

Also, how did most fans feel about “The Decision?” Truly shocking that another player at that level is doing his best to avoid that kind of backlash, don’t you think?

Sorry, this isn’t a game show that makes your job easier, Buster. Just try working a little harder. It won’t kill you.

Someone please hand me the tissues

Now for a decent cry:

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