I’m always interested in reading about what goes on behind-the-scenes of baseball front offices. As a bonus to the topic in today’s Baseball Tonight Clubhouse online article, ESPN’s J.P. Ricciardi shares a couple of Reds-related trade deadline stories.
First, the Scott Rolen trade was almost undone by technical difficulties.
As we were trying to send all the details to the commissioner’s office, the fax machine stopped working. Here I am, kicking the fax machine, and screaming at Rolen’s agent, saying, “Send the agreement again!” (Rolen had to sign off on the deal because of his no-trade clause.) It took us about five tries to finally get the fax through. We got it into the commissioner’s office with less than a minute to spare.
In the category of “best trades not made†is this brief account of the 2006 trade deadline.
I remember one year we had Frank Catalanotto, and the Reds were knocking on our door. We wanted Johnny Cueto, who was in A-ball at the time, and they didn’t want to give him up.
Reds fans everywhere thank you Mr. Wayne Krivsky for having the discipline to retain such a talented pitching prospect. Where would this 2010 Reds team be without Rolen and Cueto?