Manny Machado's Agent Rips Buster Olney And Bob Nightengale In Scathing Letter
Manny Machado is still a free agent and reports about his future salary and destination have been floated consistently. On Wednesday his agent, Dan Lozano, publicly ripped two baseball writers who have followed the situation closely.
Both USA Today’s Bob Nightengale and ESPN’s Buster Olney were the subject of a scathing letter Lozano published about his client’s free agency experience:
"I have known Bob Nightengale and Buster Olney for many years and have always had a good professional relationship with both. But their recent reporting, like many other rumors in the past several months, have been inaccurate and reckless when it comes to Manny Machado. I don’t know if their sources are blatantly violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement by intentionally misleading them to try and affect negotiations through the public or are just flat out lying to them for other reasons. But the truth is that their reports on the details of the White Sox level of interest in Manny are completely wrong. I am well aware that the entire baseball universe; fans, players, teams, and media members alike; are starved for information about this free agent market for all players, including Manny. But I am not going to continue to watch the press be manipulated into tampering with, not just with my client, but all of these players’ livelihoods as they have been doing this entire offseason. The absence of new information to report is no excuse to fabricate “news” or regurgitate falsehoods without even attempting to confirm their validity and it is a disservice to baseball fans everywhere when the media does just that. Moving forward, I will continue to respect the CBA’s prohibition on negotiations through the media, and hope that others would do the same."
Wow, that’s pretty brutal. He’s basically saying Nightengale and Olney are acting like mouthpieces for teams as they try to negotiate through the media.
On Wednesday, Olney reported the Chicago White Sox had made a seven-year, $175 million offer for Machado. Fancred’s Jon Heyman was quick to shoot that report down:
hear that the rumor of a chisox 175M offer for 7 years for manny machado is not correct. am told it is "way off," though not sure exactly how off. I'd say offer has to be higher and almost surely begins with a 2.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 16, 2019
We all know reporters hear from teams constantly as they float potential terms. But it’s on those reporters to verify those details with sources on the other side as well. If they haven’t been, Lozano’s anger is fully justified.