Cubs' Epstein not bitter about Dempster dealings
Every baseball manager has his own unique way of putting things.
Cubs manager Dale Sveum likes to caution against “beating things to a dead horse.”
You get the point.
So at the risk of beating the whole Ryan Dempster saga “to a dead horse,” we'll address it one more time here because Cubs president Theo Epstein talked Wednesday on the subject at length, and without any acrimony or bitterness directed toward Dempster.
One positive trait of this new organization is that it seemingly has no desire to bad-mouth former players on their way out of town. See Carlos Zambrano.
Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer finally managed to trade Dempster to the Texas Rangers at Tuesday's nonwaiver deadline but a week after Dempster used his veteran (“10-and'5”) status to nix a trade to Atlanta that may have netted the Cubs a better haul than what they got from Texas.
Even so, Epstein and Hoyer seem happy with pitching prospect Kyle Hendricks and third-base prospect Christian Villanueva.
What seemed to bother Dempster was that the deal leaked out into the media.
Dempster's preferred location was the Dodgers, but the Cubs could not come up with a match, with the Rangers riding in at the last minute.
Although Dempster was a popular figure in Chicago since coming here in 2004, he took a beating from many (not all) Cubs fans on social media and other forums.
Epstein said that criticism wasn't warranted.
“I don't think Ryan deserves any criticism,” Epstein said. “It's not fair for anyone to criticize Ryan unless they've been in that spot. It's a right that he earned. Do we wish he would've had 12 places that were an ideal destination for him instead of one? Sure.
“That Atlanta deal we had lined up I felt was an outstanding deal for the organization. Would we have liked to have executed it? Absolutely. But in the end, my thoughts on his situation might have been exactly the same.”
That's not to say there weren't differing interpretations of the meaning of “blindsided,” a term attributed to Dempster (even though he didn't say it) as his reaction to being traded to Atlanta.
On Tuesday, Dempster explained his decision on Atlanta like this: “It was just a decision over time. I never really got a chance to make the decision. It was kind of made for me. Unfortunately, I just needed some time to think about it. It worked out the way it did. I'm happy with going to the Texas Rangers.”
We'll let Epstein take it from here as he gave his take of the trade scenario.
“We had talked about it, Epstein said. “There were places he was open to, but there was one spot that was a clear No. 1 (Dodgers). The way that went down, I told Ryan that Atlanta was a very interested team. He had told us initially that was a place that had a lot of appeal to him, a National League team, pitcher's park, contender.
“Two or three days in advance of when that story broke, I told Ryan, ‘Hey, Atlanta's very interested. Start really thinking about. Start processing it because I think it's going to be real.' The day before the deal, I told Ryan, ‘Hey, it looks like tomorrow morning, we're going to have to (decide).' We're going to have to make a deal. If they're going to come to us, we're going to have to make a deal, and you're going to have to make a decision.
“There was time to make a final decision. I told Ryan, ‘We have a deal, finally. You don't have to decide right away, but I know you've been thinking about it a couple days. Keep thinking about it.'”
So what happened from there?
“He didn't technically say ‘no,'” Epstein said. “He said ‘No, not now. I'm not going to go to Atlanta before I see about L.A.' And Atlanta, very reasonably, didn't want to wait around and risk not getting a pitcher.
“We consummated a deal with Atlanta quietly and told Ryan, ‘We have a deal, so you don't have to decide right away, but keep thinking about it.' That was a good conversation, and then the story leaked. And with the nature of technology and social media these days, these things obviously spread quickly, and like wildfire.
“Ryan never got the opportunity, for, I'd say, more than an hour, to fully contemplate Atlanta with a deal actually in place. I feel for him. All of a sudden, instead of having time to contemplate it privately, he had everyone telling him what to do, everyone asking him questions about it, and it became a nuisance for him. I think it's really hard to criticize Ryan. I think it's unfortunate. But he certainly wasn't blindsided because we had been telling him for days that Atlanta was a very likely destination and we were going to have to make a final decision.”
But there was a point where Epstein said he could see Dempster being “blindsided.”
“I think it's fair to say he was blindsided in the sense that he thought he was going to continue to have a period of quiet contemplation, and then all of a sudden, everybody had the story,” Epstein said. “Unless someone has been through that kind of attention and public debate and surprise at the media discussing one in that matter, it's hard to criticize him. I don't think he deserves criticism. Again, do I wish that there were 12 teams as a favored destination? Of course, because we could've been able to maximize his return that way.”
bmiiles@dailyherald.com