Trade deadline brings drama
Trendy teams opt for ‘reboot’
Reality TV isn’t really my thing.
I haven’t watched any in years, at least since Cubs part-owner Todd Ricketts’ failed attempt at selling hot dogs in “Undercover Boss.”
But this year’s trade deadline created some must-see reality TV, including one strange episode Wednesday night that had everything: a crying ballplayer, a Twitter catastrophe, player selfies, and a trade that fell apart to boot.
Plenty of big names were dealt last week, including Cole Hamels, Troy Tulowitzki, David Price, Johnny Cueto, Jonathan Papelbon and Carlos Gomez, while a few dozen prospects who may or may not turn out to be the real deal changed organizations as well.
And in the end, a new term emerged that probably will be part of the baseball lexicon for years to come: the reboot.
“The best word or term I saw was from (Tigers general manager) Dave Dombrowski — ‘reboot,’ “Reds GM Walt Jocketty told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “That’s kind of what we’re doing. We’re rebooting or retooling. It’s not a rebuild.”
Yes, “rebuild” is now a pejorative, like “performance-enhancing” or “bush league.” No one has the time for a rebuild, but everyone can wait for a reboot.
When you reboot your computer, you’re just turning it off and then turning it back on. When you’re rebooting a team, you’re tuning out the season by making a move or two to tune in again next year.
The Tigers were the principal rebooters, opting to deal upcoming free agents Price and Yoenis Cespedes despite being only 3 games out of the second wild-card spot at the trade deadline. Back in 1997 when the White Sox sold off their stars in a similar situation, it was called “White Flagging it.”
One team in desperate need of a reboot was the Padres, who were said to be shopping James Shields, Craig Kimbrel, Tyson Ross, Ian Kennedy, Andrew Cashner, Justin Upton and others. They wound up trading none of them.
“Ultimately, we didn’t feel like we got the value that we wanted to get,” general manager A.J. Preller told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We like our team, and (we’ll) keep going forward from here.”
But when they look back on the trade deadline of 2015, the story that long will be told was the drama that unfolded Wednesday night when various media outlets reported the Brewers had traded Gomez to the Mets for Wilmer Flores and Zack Wheeler.
Since the deal hadn’t been made official because of the medicals, we were treated to the sight of Flores shedding tears as he took the field one inning.
In the end, it was a great week for baseball. Fans of almost every team had a new player or players to look forward to watching, whether it’s this year or down the road in the next reboot.