I don’t see much point in getting hackles raised over what’s said while a lucrative contract extension is up for grabs, because negotiations are an ends to a means, and the means are what’s meaningful in the end. Thus, when David Wright’s future as a Met went from glide path to word jumble in a matter of hours Tuesday, I shrugged it off as the fog of money, the kind of money none of us will ever see (unless we had Marvin Miller advocating [1] on behalf of our profession at some point in our lives).
Mets reportedly make big offer [2]! Mets reportedly make bigger offer [3]! Wright calls reports inaccurate [4]! When Adam Rubin’s telling me white smoke is emerging from the Acela Club one way or the other, then I’ll take it deathly seriously. Until then, it’s all numbers and rumors and November. It’s not news.
But I did like this on-the-record comment from David himself, cited in an e-mail requested to “clarify” matters, as relayed by mlb.com’s Anthony DiComo [5]:
“It was important to me from the very beginning that these negotiations remain confidential and private. I plan on sticking to that.”
Loud leaks may be a fun way to kill time between the last pitch of the World Series and the first catch of Spring Training, but the Wright way strikes me as the right way to conduct these things. Why am I not surprised that’s David’s process?