From today's Orange County Register:
Point of no return for Weaver
The Angels will make no further attempt to sign their first-round pick.
By MARK SAXON
The Orange County Register
TEMPE, ARIZ. – The Angels' high-profile draft gamble has blown up. After a winter of acrimonious talks, the team is abandoning its efforts to sign first-round pick Jered Weaver.
Angels general manager Bill Stoneman set a midnight Wednesday deadline for Weaver's agent, Scott Boras, to accept the club's latest offer of $5.25 million spread over five years, and the deadline came and went.
In compensation for not signing Weaver, the Angels will receive a pick between the first and second rounds of this June's draft. That's scant return for losing a pitcher many experts thought could have helped them late this season or early next season.
"This is a guy we would have liked to have added, but is it going to ruin my day? No," Stoneman said.
Boras lowered his asking price from $10.5 million to $8million in recent weeks in an effort to bridge a gap that was more like a chasm when talks began. As a last-ditch effort, Weaver requested a face-to-face meeting between himself, Boras, Stoneman and owner Arte Moreno.
Instead, Stoneman called Boras to set the Wednesday deadline.
Boras accused Stoneman of ignoring information he had been given before the draft indicating what other clubs were willing to pay Weaver. Stoneman denied that,saying, "That's a lie."
The agent said he feels the Angels drafted Weaver to block a team farther down the draft from taking him. The Arizona Diamondbacks had made public statements indicating they wanted to draft Weaver, and they picked at No.15, three spots after the Angels.
"When a club knowingly drafts a player, understands that the value they have on the player is nowhere near the value other clubs have placed on him, you know the only reason they signed the player would be to restrain him from playing," Boras said. "Those scenarios don't often lead to good-faith deals."
Boras said Weaver will continue working out in simulated spring training at the agent's sports fitness institute, then will re-enter the draft in June. He thinks he can get a deal near his original asking price for the Long Beach State right-hander.
J.D. Drew and Jason Varitek - Boras clients - re-entered the draft and eventually landed deals similar to the ones Boras was seeking. Weaver led college baseball in victories, going 15-1, and strikeouts (201) last season.
Both sides felt the other was at blame for the breakdown in talks, but it boiled down to a difference of opinion over the player's worth. Boras thinks Weaver is good enough to pitch at the back end of the Angels' rotation soon, perhaps by the end of this season.
But some in the Angels organization felt Rice right-hander Jeff Neimann, who received a $5.2 million contract from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, was more likely to blossom into a dominant starter. Niemann had arm trouble and might not be major league-ready for several years.
Now, Stoneman said, the club is moving forward with its other business and won't listen to further proposals from Boras. He said Major League Baseball exerted no pressure on him to hold down the contract offer.
"We're not waiting for anything," Stoneman said. "We've got business on the field. From our perspective, the player should be here. He should have been herewhen pitchers and catchers reported. We've got our first spring game (today). He should have been here by now."
The Angels' patience grew thinner as camp progressed. They say they are happy with the talent they took behind Weaver in last June's draft, and the young arms they have in their minor-league system.
"I think it is disappointing, but that's the nature of the business," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We'll move on. We've got a lot of good arms around here, and I'm sure Jered will have a good career. This just couldn't work out right now."
The question now is whether this ugly dispute will sour the Angels' further dealings with Boras. Pitcher Jarrod Washburn is a free agent after this season and he is represented by Boras. In the past, the Angels have been able to do business successfully with the game's highest-profile agent. They signed pitcher Chris Bootcheck, a first-rounder, after the 2000 draft and they were able to work out contract extensions for two other Boras clients, Washburn and Scott Schoeneweis.
Stoneman said it remains to be seen whether this will affect his dealings with Boras.
"If they didn't take it seriously, I don't know what to say," Boras said. "We tried to compromise in this thing."
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