Thursday, March 03, 2005 |
Weaver Negotiations Break Down
When asked if the club was prepared to lose their rights to Weaver in June, when the pitcher could re-enter the draft, Stoneman said: "Absolutely. It's not in our control. We made him the best offer in this year's draft or last year's draft. And the player is not here.The $4-$5M deal listed above conflicts with earlier reports from that same paper that the Angels had offered Weaver $7M. On the surface, this begins to look like a negotiating ploy. The Angels recently have gotten stories published both on mlb.com and in the Orange County Register extolling the virtues of Steve Shell and Ervin Santana; the Register article particularly notes that they are the "Angels' best insurance policy against failing to sign first-round draft pick Jered Weaver". And speaking of the Register, that paper reported"Our objective all along was to sign him. If it wasn't, why would we offer him what we did? We're moving on to what we really want to focus on."
The two sides are at an impasse because agent Scott Boras has maintained Weaver, the former Long Beach State pitcher, should not be compared to his '04 draft peers but rather to other collegiate players who were major-league ready, such as Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior (five years, $10.5 million in 2001) and Texas first baseman Mark Teixeira (four years, $9.5 million).
According to sources, the Angels offered Weaver the choice of signing a minor-league contract with a $4 million signing bonus, or a five-year major league contract worth $5.25 million.
The $4 million offer is far short of Boras' expectation of a $7.5 million package for a minor-league deal. Boras recently cut his asking price from $10 million.
He derided the Angels for slotting Weaver with the five-year, $5.2 million contract that Rice right-hander Jeff Niemann, the third overall pick, signed with Tampa Bay. Niemann suffered an elbow injury his junior season; Weaver went 15-1 last season at Long Beach State.
"The Angels haven't wavered in saying Jered is like Niemann," Boras said. "Why would a pitcher who's had Tommy John surgery be in any way comparable to Jered Weaver, who had a historical season? It doesn't make sense."
Angels general manager Bill Stoneman set a midnight Wednesday deadline for Weaver's agent, Scott Boras, to accept the club's latest offer of $5.25 million spread over five years, and the deadline came and went.Damn. That doesn't sound like any negotiating ploy to me. So the Angels will receive a compensatory sandwich pick in this year's first round as they squander their 2004 first round pick. The organization will try to put a happy face on it ("'This is a guy we would have liked to have added, but is it going to ruin my day? No,' Stoneman said."), but it was a calculated gamble -- one that, it appears, both Boras's client and the Angels have lost....
Boras lowered his asking price from $10.5 million to $8million in recent weeks in an effort to bridge a gap that was more like a chasm when talks began. As a last-ditch effort, Weaver requested a face-to-face meeting between himself, Boras, Stoneman and owner Arte Moreno.
Instead, Stoneman called Boras to set the Wednesday deadline.
Update: Baseball America says that Boras incorrectly claimed Rice RHP Jeff Niemann has had Tommy John surgery.
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