This weekend it looked as if Major League Baseball was finally getting somewhere regarding the Theo Epstein compensation situation. The Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs were unable to reach an agreement, so the case was put in the lap of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. The commish told reporters last Friday that he hoped to get things resolved “as expeditiously as possible”. However, it appears that even Selig has put the Epstein compensation case on the back burner.
Yesterday Peter Gammonsof MLB.com tweeted that Selig still hasn’t received written arguments from the Cubs and the Red Sox. We heard this weekend that lists were submitted to Selig by each team that supposedly contained the names of several players.
Epstein himself and Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington both attended last night’s Hot Stove Cool Music panel at Fenway Park. When asked about the pending decision, Epstein told Nick Carfado of the Boston Globe that it seems as if the situation should “be coming to an end sometime soon”.
Cherington had a bit more to say, as he noted the whole thing is “hard to quantify” because it’s “just a disagreement”. Cherington added that “there was an expectation when Theo left that the Red Sox would receive significant compensation for allowing the Cubs to hire him”. Since that time, Cherington noted that the sides “haven’t been able to agree on what ‘significant compensation’ means”.
For more on the Red Sox and Cubs, be sure to check out BoSox Injection and Cubbies Crib.
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