Scott Harris was about to pass his first major test as the Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations.
He got the Los Angeles Dodgers to agree to a trade for left-handed starter Eduardo Rodriguez, one of the most desirable pitchers on the market. It was the one big thing Harris had to do at this trade deadline — trade E-Rod, who is expected to opt out of his contract at the end of this season. It was a complicated deal, a complicated contract, and a complicated situation.
And then, at the worst possible time, about an hour before the 6 p.m. Tuesday deadline, the Dodgers deal completely fell apart.
Because E Rod nixed it, invoking a no-trade clause. A no-trade clause the Tigers knew he had.
To which I say: you’ve gotta be freakin’ kidding me.
What a mess.
Harris had one major job at the deadline: Trade Rodriguez.
It was his job to shepherd the deal through to the end, to foresee any looming obstacles and remove them, to be two steps ahead of everybody else. That’s what a great leader does.
But Harris failed to get it done. Failed to see the problem at the end of the deal.
Harris botched his first major test at the trade deadline and he missed an opportunity to add talent at a time when the Tigers don’t have the luxury to lose out on talent.
WHAT HAPPENED? Eduardo Rodriguez kills trade for ‘family reasons,’ according to Dodgers
This was disappointing for Tigers fans and embarrassing for Harris, who is left in a horrible, impossible spot.
Other teams knew that he was scrambling, and he had an hour to make a deal.
And he ended up getting… nothing.
For a pitcher, as he would say, “every team in baseball would want that type of starter in the rotation.”
And he couldn’t trade him?
So what happened?
On Tuesday night, I asked Harris point blank: Why do a deal with a team on his no-trade list?
“We were talking throughout about possible destinations, and it didn’t work out in the end,” Harris said. “So I have to leave it at that.”
Does that sound, um, kinda empty? Yes, it does.
Just like the Tigers’ haul, here.
So what happened?
Yes, Harris knew the Dodgers were on his no-trade list.
As I understand it, after several conversations with Rodriguez, Harris thought a deal was, at the very least, possible. The Dodgers and Tigers worked on it and worked on it.
But at the last hour, literally, the last hour, Rodriguez did not like some unrevealed part of the deal.
“We were communicating with Eduardo in person, via text and on the phone and at the end of the day, we reached an agreement on Eduardo that he was not comfortable with and he ultimately decided to stay in Detroit,” Harris said.
Let me state the obvious: this is not acceptable. You were not communicating effectively if this pops up at the end.
Who is the blame?
Did Rodriguez mislead Harris?
Did Harris misread Rodriguez?
To quote a line from the movie, “Cool Hand Luke”: “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”
Jack Harris, the Dodgers beat writer for the Los Angeles Times, wrote on social media: the “Dodgers were surprised that Eduardo Rodriguez vetoed the trade. They hadn’t been directly told he would waive his (No Trade Clause) by the Tigers or E-Rod’s agent, but they didn’t know it would be an issue until it came time to complete the deal.”
He got the easy deal done
To be fair, Harris did accomplish his other task: he traded Michael Lorenzen.
Lorenzen will become a free agent at the end of 2023, so there was absolutely no reason to keep him. He was traded just three hours before the deadline to the Phillies for 20-year-old infielder Hao-Yu Lee.
Lee was the Phillies’ No. 5 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.
I never thought that the Tigers would get a top tier prospect for Lorenzen, a rental player, so Lee seemed fair for both sides. Lee is a versatile infielder, hitting .283 with a .773 OPS at High-A.
He sounds like a Harris kind of guy: “The 5-foot-10 infielder has the chance to be a very good hitter, with a clean swing and an advanced approach at the plate,” according to MLB Pipeline.
Yes, that sounds good. But the Lorenzen deal was easy because it was for a rental player.
But the E-Rod deal was far more complicated because he has a complicated contract.
“There were some contractual headwinds that influenced his market,” Harris said. “There were a couple of terms in his contract that disqualified a lot.”
Rodriguez can opt out of his contract after this season, which made the Tigers want to trade him. But that also made trading him complicated because he could turn into just a rental player for the next team, too.
But Rodriguez could stay in his current deal, especially if he gets hurt between now and the offseason, and whomever has him would still be on the hook for $49 million over the next three years.
But the Dodgers, with a $237 million payroll, were willing to take that risk.
Harris was under the understanding that Rodriguez was willing to go to LA under the right circumstances.
So he put all his eggs — or all his E-Rod — in one basket.
“We had a lot of conversations about, you know, different teams in the league and different situations,” Harris said. “We had steady communication throughout. And at the end of the day, Eduardo wasn’t comfortable with the deal as it was presented to him. That’s his right; he’s earned that right.”
But it’s Harris’ job to finish the deal.
Blowing it
Did Harris over-value Rodriguez to other teams?
He could say: No, I nailed it. We had a deal.
But he didn’t complete a deal, and that’s all that matters.
This is a black and white business.
You win or you lose. You either get the job done or you don’t.
And in those terms, Harris failed to trade his best trade asset, which is inexcusable.
Maybe he misplayed his hand. Maybe he misread the situation. Maybe he misread Rodriguez. Or maybe, Rodriguez totally mislead Harris. Or maybe, Harris is still learning on the job.
At this stage, the reason doesn’t matter.
And the Tigers came out of the trade deadline looking like laughingstocks.
Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.