Excel Sports Management Partner Casey Close, the agent for OF Dexter Fowler, "released a scathing statement directed at the Orioles and the media Thursday evening" after his client signed with the Cubs, according to Jon Meoli of the Baltimore SUN. The statement "comes two days after it was widely reported that Fowler agreed to a three-year deal with the Orioles." Close in his statement wrote, "In my 25 years in this business, never before have I witnessed such irresponsible behavior on so many fronts. Both the Orioles front office and members of the media were so busy recklessly spreading rumors that they forgot or simply chose not to concern themselves with the truth. The Orioles' willful disregard of collectively bargained rules governing free agency and the media's eager complicity in helping the Orioles violate those rules are reprehensible." Orioles Exec VP/Baseball Operations Dan Duquette on Thursday said that the team "made a 'very competitive offer' but never agreed because of Fowler's insistence on an opt-out." Asked about Close's statement calling the Orioles' integrity into question, Duquette said that the team's pursuit of Fowler "was whole-hearted." Duquette: "We were sincere in our effort to sign the player" (Baltimore SUN, 2/26).
CLOSER TO THE HEART: In Baltimore, Peter Schmuck writes he is unsure what the point of Close's statement was, unless it was to "draw attention away from the fact that Close let his client turn down" $15.8M from the Cubs in November and "came back in February to accept about half that in salary plus an option/buyout" that guaranteed $5M more. The Orioles had been "engaged in a rather unusual negotiation with the Fowler camp -- unusual because the player actually was seeking a shorter contract than the Orioles wanted to give him." Some players "now prefer to sign a one-year deal or a multiyear contract with an early opt-out clause." The opt-out clause "was the issue here," as Duquette has "made it clear throughout the offseason that the Orioles will not give any player the chance to opt out of a contract that includes additional guaranteed years because of how dramatically that alters the risk/reward equation for the team." Duquette: "We made it clear that type of deal wasn't going to work for us." Fowler instead signed a deal with the Cubs that "addressed the situation in a different way." He agreed to a one-year deal "with a mutual option" for the '17 season, which "allows either side to opt out after this season." Schmuck: "There's no reason for the Orioles to be embarrassed about this strange reversal" (Baltimore SUN, 2/26). CBSSPORTS.com's Matt Snyder wrote Close "seems livid with the Orioles." He is "risking publicly burning a bridge to a potential landing spot for future free-agent clients." Snyder: "He's gotta be pretty angry about something that specifically happened in order to do that" (CBSSPORTS.com, 2/25).
MISINFORMED MEDIA: FOXSPORTS.com's Ken Rosenthal wrote anyone who blames the Orioles' failure to complete a deal with Fowler "on his desire for an opt-out clause misses the point." If the Orioles "would not give Fowler an opt-out, then they had no agreement with him," and if they "had no agreement with him, then why the heck did people in their organization tell certain members of the media that they did?" Rosenthal: "Was it to pressure [Close] into accepting the team’s three-year offer? Was it to scare off other interested clubs? Was it simply a matter of miscommunication?" The bottom line is that Fowler took $2.8M less than he "would have received from the Cubs if he had accepted their qualifying offer" and at least $20M less "than the Orioles offered him to return to the Cubs" (FOXSPORTS.com, 2/25).
