blue jays general manager j.p. ricciardi announced this evening that two-time all-star outfielder alex rios had been claimed off waivers and acquired by the chicago white sox. rios is just 28 and the kind of guy around which you build a franchise — a pure baseball talent with a squeaky clean record and coverboy good looks. while waiver deals are not entirely unusual, five details of this transaction were odd business. let’s examine this botched business transaction — one involving lack of respect for employees, a branding blunder, mismanagement of a key business asset, flip-flop communications, loss of credibility, and forfeit of future sales leverage. here’s the wiki on baseball waivers.
here are details from tonight’s transaction between the toronto blue jays and chicago white sox involving star player alex rios:
1) rios made the trip from toronto to new york, was written into the lineup for monday’s game — only to be notified that he was off to chicago 30 minutes before first pitch. 2) general manager made the announcement into a yes network microphone (the yankees’s branded network) in front of a backdrop of yankee logos. 3) toronto received no players in exchange for one of their best players — chicago simply paid a $20,000 waiver fee. 4) toronto danced around the issue for days, was not straight with its fans about what was going on when news originally leaked but finally claimed it was about creating “financial flexibility” for the franchise. 5) toronto played hard ball with several teams just weeks ago over another one of its all-star players (pitcher roy halladay) — yet did not move him. how do you think halladay feels now about staying on board behind this transaction? what do potential trading partners feel about the blue jays having watched this deal go down as it has? shame on you blue jays – you are a management disaster!
