Walker for Williams trade revisted

[unc84steve]

Some people believe that Matt Williams alone was to blame for the Larry Walker trade for being vetoed. Some of them think it's a relevant topic to discuss now because Matty thus prevented a quality hitter from coming to Arizona. I happen to think this issue is quite debatable since media reports say Larry Walker balked at deferring his salary.

Considering the disclosed terms of Randy Johnson's contract, I think there's evidence that Larry Walker would have been asked to restructure much of his contract and didn't want to.

 

[Cland]

My understanding (Denver Post) is that not only did Walker balk at deferring money that he also blew JC off and didn't return any of his phone calls. That's when JC pulled the deal off the table. So technically, it was Walker who killed the deal first. Of course Matty would have killed it too but it didn't even get to him. Both players said they would use their clause. BOTH players are to blame for this deal not going through.

I have no clue why Matty gets all the blame for all of this organization’s problems. He has turned into the biggest scapegoat on this board. I guess it’s due to personal biases.

 

[schillingfan]

Well Steve, I addressed this is the other thread. But consider what we knew about MLB contracts, transactions etc. To the best of my knowledge the trade was not conditional on Larry Walker accepting and signing an agreement to defer. Has anyone heard otherwise? He was being asked to defer, BUT, and it's a big BUT, there was no way that the D-Backs could have forced him to agree to a deferment and to change his duly negotiated contract with the Rockies. The only way that it could have occurred was if there was some contingency in the trade that if Walker didn't sign a new contract with the D-Backs with the deferment, the trade would be vetoed. I never heard of that. Walker was the one who vetoed the trade

I believe it was simply face saving, since Matty was going to veto the deal.

 

[Rudy P]

One thing I have always believed about this deal was that the player's union pressured both sides to turn it down. Now, I don't want to sound like some kind of conspiracy theorist here, but I know there were rumors about the union pressuring Thome into signing with Philadelphia over Cleveland because the Phillies had the higher price and it could cripple future contracts if he got lowballed.

Anyway, consider this:

1) The union loves no trade clauses. It truly takes a lot of power away from the owners. The way the Diamondbacks handled this trade was disgraceful. Trading a player with a no trade clause publically, then making it look like he was the bad guy when he didn't accept. The union must have been fuming about this -- give a guy an option, then use public pressure to get him to wave this option. That alone is ahy I am so critical of those who down Williams. You cannot pressure an unwanted employee to quit in a normal job, and what they did to Matty was unfair. It seemed like they were trying to turn Matty into the bad guy so they could erase their mistake.

2) The union must also be tired of deferred salaries, and, honestly, they have to be worried about the Diamondbacks chances of paying their players in the future. If you promise a guy $10 million dollars, you should pay it. I don't want to hear any argument about how the guy should be happy making $5 million, that's irrelevant. The point is, you signed this contract saying that you would pay him $10 million this year, in order to get him here. Now you're saying you won't do it? Yeah, they will get the money, but the union has to be tired of this. And I think that's what they told Larry Walker.

I agree with another poster: neither Williams nor Walker got the D-backs into this mess. The organization did, and people have been predicting this type of thing for years. No need to make Matty or Larry the scapegoats. This is just the downside of the reckless spending that characterized the early D-backs. The upside was a World Series win.

 

[schillingfan]

Originally posted by Rudy P
The way the Diamondbacks handled this trade was disgraceful. Trading a player with a no trade clause publically, then making it look like he was the bad guy when he didn't accept. The union must have been fuming about this -- give a guy an option, then use public pressure to get him to wave this option.

I don't believe the D-Backs did anything wrong. Matty was off hunting and not reachable at the time the trade talks were being discussed. From what I heard, the D-Backs did not make the trade public, the Rockies did.

Trades are made all the time with players with no-trade clauses. This one involved two players. I suppose technically they could have gotten approval, before hand, but the rumors were so broken at that point they may as well make the trade and see if the players agree.

To the contrary, the D-Backs clearly made Larry Walker and not Matt Williams the bad guy, stating that he turned it down first, making Williams irrelevant.

You've never seen what a really horrible organization does to make its players look bad.