It’s been a big 10 days in baseball. Just don’t ask anyone in baseball.
On Dec. 3, the Boston Red Sox reportedly agreed to terms with reliever Aroldis Chapman. “I’m not supposed to talk about it,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora on Monday, the opening day of this week’s winter meetings in Dallas.
On Monday, the Chicago Cubs reportedly neared the end of a deal with catcher Carson Kelly. “I can’t comment on it,” said Cubs manager Craig Counsell. “I’m happy to comment at a later date for you guys,” he added helpfully.
On Nov. 30, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed lefty Blake Snell. “I don’t know how much I can talk about him,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
No, don’t worry, he was informed. The team already announced the deal.
“He’s official?” Roberts said happily. “O.K., good. I can talk about Snell. Thanks. Great. Snell’s great.”
The best part of the offseason is getting a good player. The worst part is pretending you didn’t.
The prize for most ridiculous dance so far has to go to New York Mets officials, who agreed on Sunday to a $765 million, 15-year deal with right fielder Juan Soto, the largest contract in professional sports history. But Soto has to pass a physical before the deal can become official, and team officials are loath to speak on the record about a player who is not officially on their team. (This is the same problem facing Cora and Counsell.)
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The sorts of plaudits they might offer are not actually against league rules, which only restrict them from taking shots at a player that might tamp down his market, but any talking out of turn tends to earn them vicious side-eye from their media-relations staff, and sometimes worse from their top brass.
The result is that Mets people won’t talk about the only thing anyone at the winter meetings wants to talk about. Unfortunately for them, they had to endure two previously scheduled media availabilities on Monday.
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns tried to fend off reporters by opening his session with a warning: “I'm not going to comment on any of it. You can ask me about it, and I’m not going to comment on it. So happy to talk about any other topic that would be on your mind.”
Give the media credit for trying. “If you were to acquire a right fielder,” asked the New York Post’s Mike Puma, “where could you see [current right fielder] Starling Marte?”
“I think if we were to acquire a right fielder, we’ll talk about that when we acquire a right fielder,” said Stearns.
“What did you do last night?” tried Newsday’s Tim Healey.
“I flew here,” said Stearns.
Manager Carlos Mendoza was no more candid. Asked about his favorite Mets acquisition this winter, he named righty Frankie Montas (official) and center fielder José Siri (official). Asked what he did last night, he said he got a good night’s sleep. Asked what a substantial signing might mean about the Mets, he said, “I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but we want to win. We want to win, and we have an owner that is willing to do whatever it takes.”
Perhaps no one is more familiar with this silliness than Roberts, who at this same event last year took the brave step of admitting his team had met with Shohei Ohtani, perhaps the most talented player in history, as he underwent free agency. Because Ohtani had reportedly sworn teams to secrecy, even that small nugget of information rocked the winter meetings. So Roberts has given a lot of thought about how to navigate two competing goals: to act like a human being, and not to get yelled at.
“It’s awkward,” Roberts acknowledges, “because everyone has a job to do, right? And I’m just trying to adhere to rules and regulations, and I think the art is trying to be respectful to the people asking the questions, and take that on respectfully, and try to sort of respectfully decline to comment.”
For a brief dose of reality, it helps to check in with someone whose team was not really involved in the bidding.
“He’s going to help the Mets, as we all know,” Washington Nationals manager Davey Martinez said. “I’m proud of him. I’m glad he’s able to take care of himself, the family and many generations. That’s how much money he made.”
Unfortunately for the Nationals, they didn’t sign Soto. But on the bright side, they can say anything they want.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Art of Avoiding the Elephant in the Room.
