Several camera shutters snapped, sensing that the focused facade on the quiet man's face might crumble, to reveal a tear or two. But, after pausing, Henry said, ''There's no crying in baseball."
Despite high hopes that clarity would replace days of confusion, neither Epstein nor Henry revealed to the assembled media horde the core reasons for the breakdown in talks and the GM's decision to leave. Still, some additional details about the negotiations and their collapse began to emerge.
Henry, according to a team source close to the negotiations, faults himself because he never directly involved himself in negotiations aimed at extending Epstein's contract, negotiations that ultimately failed. Instead, Henry, as far back as spring training, empowered president/CEO Larry Lucchino to handle all facets of Epstein's renegotiation, viewing it as important that the club be represented by only one voice in negotiations.
Epstein, the team source said, reached out to the club during the last spring training, asking that his contract be addressed to avoid a public renegotiation this fall. The club, according to the team source, didn't make an offer until the All-Star break in mid-July, when Lucchino presented Epstein with an offer that the former GM viewed as well below market value.
The sides had only two or three conversations the rest of the season, according to the source, as Epstein and the club focused instead on a challenging second half. About 2-4 days after the season ended, Epstein and Lucchino resumed face-to-face negotiations on a near daily basis, the team source said. Epstein, negotiating for himself at the insistence of the club, rejected offers of $850,000 per year and $1.2 million per year before finally arriving at his desired salary: $1.5 million per season.
That salary issue, according to the team source, was effectively resolved with about one week to go before Epstein's deal expired at the end of the day Monday. Still, Epstein did not agree at that point. He'd simply set one of his concerns -- money -- to the side. There were other issues, and that appears to be what Epstein referred to yesterday when he talked about turning a focused eye inward, on the organization.
