In the 1973 movie “The Paper Chase,” a first-year law student at Harvard fails so spectacularly and publicly in his first class that he runs to the restroom and loses his lunch. To which a friend remarks, “Hardly a propitious start.”
The movie is about a student named Hart who struggles to navigate his first steps in an unfamiliar world filled with cut-throat competition and an unforgiving professor, from which he learns harsh but valuable lessons.
It’s a 50-year-old flick, but it serves as a timely allegory for Scott Harris, who flubbed his first big test as the Detroit Tigers’ president of baseball operations by failing to move his biggest piece, left-handed starter Eduardo Rodriguez, at the trade deadline.
I’m not sure if Harris kept his lunch down. But judging by the harsh disappointment expressed by Tigers fans in comment sections and call-in shows, I’m pretty sure many of them did not.
When you strip away everything, all the family talk and communications questions and agent speak, you’re left with the same immutable fact: Harris got nothing for his best commodity. And when Rodriguez surely opts out of the final three years of his contract after the season, Harris and the Tigers will be left with even less.
How about all the family talk and love for Detroit then from Rodriguez? Surely it will repurposed by Rodriguez upon his exit with the standard “I’m doing what’s best for my family” explanation.
And he should opt out of the remaining three years and $49 million. He turns 31 in April, which means he’s in the back half of his career and needs to capitalize on his talent in the time he has left. Of course he’s not the “villain,” an idea Harris brought up all by himself in his news conference Tuesday.
But Harris isn’t the villain either. He’s just new at the job of guiding a front office and an organization.
SHAWN WINDSOR: Scott Harris’ keeping E-Rod probably not a disaster, considering Tigers’ prospects’ success rates
What we found out about Harris was that he’s no boy genius. He’s no poker-playing personnel savant who hoodwinked everyone else at the table. The only significant trade he made was flipping Michael Lorenzen for infielder Hao-Yu Lee, the Phillis’ No. 5-ranked prospect.
If it weren’t for at least getting Lee for Lorenzen, Harris’ grade for his first trade-deadline test would have been an F … for Faceplant.
The most generous view you can take of Harris’ swing-and-miss on sending E-Rod to the Dodgers is that E-Rod nixed it at the last second for one or possibly several reasons. Harris and Rodriguez were tight-lipped about what that could be.
The best clue came from Rodriguez’s agent, Gene Mato, who released a statement Wednesday night that explained “we did our best to come up with a way to make it happen where everyone was comfortable with the outcome. Unfortunately, we just ran out of time.”
Harris told reporters Tuesday that the team was in contact with Rodriguez in person, on the phone and via text throughout the day but couldn’t reach an agreement that would lead to him waiving his no-trade clause. It’s a common move among players on the trade block.
While it’s reasonable for Harris to assume Rodriguez would do exactly that, it’s almost unforgivable for him to fail to foresee any problems while getting nothing in return for, as Harris said, “one of the best left-handed starters in baseball.” Getting nothing means Harris didn’t acquire prospects who might speed along this interminable rebuild.
Several media outlets graded the Tigers’ trades, but very few included the nixed Rodriguez deal. Two that did gave the Tigers a C, including The Athletic and CBS Sports.
“I was surprised the Tigers couldn’t pivot and deal him to another contender,” former MLB general manager Joe Bowden wrote for The Athletic, “and even more surprised they kept all of their relief pitchers. It was a very disappointing deadline for an organization that needs to trade for more prospects.”
It sure was. José Cisnero and Chasen Shreve, two relievers on expiring contracts, should have been no-brainers either as stand-alone deals or as part of a package.
Personally, I would have given Harris a D … for Desperately Disappointed.
The Tigers showed early promise in late May, when they were 20-24 — 3½ games out of the AL Central lead and six games out of a wild-card berth. I wrote then that they had a chance to win the division if thing broke right. Now, it just feels like a broken record.
The Tigers entered Thursday at 48-60 and on pace to finish 72-90. They were 6½ games behind Minnesota with no realistic shot at a wild-card spot. Another lost season, with incremental improvement but with little to hope for next year.
Maybe the best hope there is for this team is Harris and the growing pains he just experienced. After all, by the end of “The Paper Chase,” Hart learns hard lessons and succeeds. He overcomes his heartless professor, survives a dysfunctional study group and aces his exams at the end of the year.
Such a Hollywood ending isn’t in the cards for Harris and the Tigers this year. But Harris had better be sure he doesn’t swing and miss at the trade deadline next year — and that his 2024 sequel isn’t a box-office disaster.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.