Fowler follows his heart back to Cubs
It was like seeing a ghost saunter onto the field Thursday.
The Chicago Cubs looked up, saw former teammate Dexter Fowler and suddenly realized he wasn’t wearing a Baltimore Orioles uniform.
Fowler, who was supposed to be on his way to Sarasota, Fla., to take a physical with the Orioles, instead was at the Cubs spring training complex in Mesa, Ariz., telling Chicago players he was back. It turns out he never left. Three days ago, after Fowler was widely reported to have accepted a three-year, $33 million deal with the Orioles, Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo sent a text: “Good luck, I’m going to miss you, my man.”
“You’re sitting there, and you’re like, ‘I can’t wait to surprise you,’ ” Fowler told reporters. How about shock? Fowler rejected the Orioles’ deal and took the Cubs’ one-year, $13 million offer. It will pay him $8 million this season, with a $9 million mutual option in 2017 or a $5 million buyout.
“My heart is here,” Fowler said. “I feel like the Cubs, they treated me with the utmost respect. With the offseason moves they made, you’ve got to go with what’s comfortable.”
Just like that, the Orioles news conference introducing starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo took a de- cided new twist, with inquiring minds wanting to know more about what happened to Fowler.
It’s one thing for a deal to be nixed because of a failed physical, but he never saw a stethoscope be- fore he changed his mind.
“It’s surreal,” Fowler said. “It’s like you’re walking back in the house and you feel like you haven’t been home in 10 years.”
After an agonizing winter in which Fowler’s value plummeted because of the compensatory draft pick that was attached to him, he decided he needed an opt-out in case he wanted to test his value again next winter. The Orioles wouldn’t budge. The Cubs did. “We made a very competitive offer,” Orioles general manager Dan Duquette said. “There was not an agreement to terms because they kept insisting on an opt-out.”
Don’t blame him, Fowler said. Blame the system.
“The whole qualifying offer thing, I think it’s flawed,” he said. “Guys like myself, we’ve been here. We’re veterans. You wait for free agency, and they’re talking about a draft pick, a guy who you don’t even know what’s going to happen to him, and you’re reaping the consequences. It needs to change. It’s a blessing in disguise. You get to see both sides of things.”
Just like that, the Cubs have a new center fielder. The old center fielder, $184 million man Jason Heyward, goes back to his original Gold Glove right-field spot. And right fielder Jorge Soler becomes a fourth outfielder, replacing Chris Coghlan, who was traded to the Oakland Athletics earlier in the day. And the Orioles? Back to the drawing board.