We tried the tracker update: Bo Beset, Stolen Arenado Edition

One of the reasons I’ve enjoyed following We Trieds this past year is because there’s so much gray area involved. When a team learns that it is also interested in a player who signed with another team, that information takes a circuitous route. Its source is undetermined. It is usually laundered through one or more reporters. When it finally enters the discourse, it appears on social media, disappears during a podcast, or appears in bold at the top of a sports section. You can never be quite sure whether the wording comes from the reporter or from the source, or from a combination of the two. The most important thing is that you never know how much truth is behind it.

The Mets “had some interest” in it Pete Alonso“showed interest”. Raisel Iglesias“checked in” Robert Suarezand “made a reasonable attempt.” Tyler Rogers. Which player did they want most? Which player put in the most effort to land? Even if you have a strong opinion about what all those words actually mean, you can never be sure. The absence of hard facts leaves a lot of room for interpretation and lame jokes. Today, however, we’re going to focus on two We Trieds that seem, if anything, too real. Will we still make stupid jokes? Yes, we will. We’ll make them extra stupid. That is not only our right; it is our sacred duty.

We’ll start in Philadelphia, where the Phillies didn’t just try to sign Bo Bichette; they thought they had already done that. Maybe. It depends who you ask. USA today‘s Bob Nightengale reported that the Phillies “agreed to Bo Bichette’s request last night for a seven-year deal worth $200 million and believed they would sign him until the Mets came in,” and many other reporters confirmed that description. However, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski denied it was a done deal. reporters tell“I can’t say we ever thought it was done.” What he described instead was a situation where the deal was as close to completion as possible, without it being official: “We thought it would happen, but it didn’t happen… Until you sign a memo of understanding, there’s no deal done.”

That’s a valid point, but an excellent one, and Dombrowski also described Bichette’s decision as a “gut punch.” The scenario Dombrowski described leaves a lot of room for interpretation. On the tamer side, perhaps the Phillies were told Bichette would sign if they met his terms, then called to say they would meet the terms, only to find out that while they were deliberating, New York’s big offer had changed his mind. That would be frustrating for the Phillies, but by no means a major betrayal. On the spicier side, perhaps the two sides had agreed to a deal and everything was done except the final signature on the memo of understanding, and then Bichette suddenly backtracked on the handshake agreement. That would really be an extreme situation. We can’t know the details, but we do know that no matter how it happened, the Phillies came away feeling like they got a job. To illustrate, here’s a year-old photo of Dombrowski looking shocked and president of operations Sam Fuld looking grumpy.

On The Phillies Show podcast, three Phillies pundits expressed the team’s outrage. Todd Zolecki of MLB.com said the front office was “furious” when it became apparent that Bichette was signing elsewhere. He described it as “a kind of rug being pulled out from under them.” Ruben Amaro Jr. said, “I thought the Phillies thought they had him in their hands.” PHLY’s Jim Salisbury compared it to the robbery Good guysand I probably don’t need to remind you that almost everyone in that robbery ended up dead. My main takeaway, though, was that The Phillies Show podcast is a bit like a sportswriting-themed slot machine that just paid out big money by landing on three guys in hoodies.

Jackpot! A small but revealing kernel of facts came from Dombrowski. He said the Phillies were limited to signing only one of Bichette or JT Realmutoand that talks with Bichette had progressed to the point where Dombrowski contacted Realmuto’s camp to let them know there would be no deal. It’s hard to imagine him making that call unless he was very sure that the Bichette deal was about to happen. When it was overturned, the Phillies had to awkwardly call Realmuto and his agent back to the table. Deep shame is not exactly the best starting point for a negotiation. No wonder Realmuto got more years and dollars than anyone expected. I’m surprised he doesn’t have bangs either.

All of this is to say that while I would have filed this in the We Tried Tracker under the headline: “We offered X dollars for

A less dramatic version of this story took place in Sacramento. The Cardinals finally acted Nolan Arenado against the Diamondbacks last week. Arizona won the Arenado sweepstakes by offering to take more money than the Padres. However, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletics reported that the A’s had also made a deal for Arenado, and that they would absorb more of Arenado’s salary than the Diamondbacks or the Padres. Why did the deal fall through? Why don’t we hear stories about David Forst punching holes in the drywall and vowing to get revenge on Chaim Bloom even if it’s the last thing he does?

Because Nolan Arenado has a no-trade clause, and no-trade clauses were invented for the express purpose of ensuring that no one with any semblance of control over their employment situation ever has to spend more than four days in Sacramento. Rosenthal described the situation gently: “Arenado indicated he would not necessarily approve a trade with the A’s, a person familiar with his thinking said.” It’s hard to believe the A’s expected a different outcome even when they negotiated the deal. On the other hand, it’s all too easy to imagine the many ways Arenado might have “indicated” he wasn’t interested in playing for the A’s.

Before we close, I’d like to note a milestone that I’ve been eagerly awaiting since I started this exercise. Earlier this month Chris Cotillo of MassLive relayed by a source that the Red Sox had “kicked the tires.” Kazuma Okamoto. To clarify: Okamoto is a human being with hopes and dreams. It is not a car now and never has been. While I’m generally against language that objectifies or commercializes baseball players (or any human beings for that matter), I have to admit that I’ll pass on this particular phrase because it’s just too cute. I can’t believe it took us so long to see it. I would happily kick the tires of any baseball player, either metaphorically or, should I happen to catch them riding a scooter, literally.

As always, I close with a plea for help. If you come across We Trieds in the wild, please let me know. The We tried Tracker currently has 50 entries, nine behind last year’s pace. I’m sure I missed a lot, and without the diligent reporting from JD and FoxMulderBatFlip we would be even further behind. You can pass your We Trieds on to me on Blueskyor you can email me at WeTriedTracker@gmail.com, a real email address that I actually check. I even check the spam folder, because you never know when Warren Buffett is going to send you an email from a very unsuspicious email address, with the subject line “ATTENTION,” telling you, using very normal grammar and punctuation, that you are one of the lucky, randomly selected people to whom he is going to donate $4.8 million.

This seems like a done deal to me. I just hope the Mets don’t invade.