Fans Rankled
Savvy fans understood the demarcation, as did Tyler’s representation. Two weeks on the farm set Tyler’s service time so that the team will control an extra season of his career.
“That just BS,” said Kelvin McGuire, a junior agent at TCRZ Sports Consortium, Inc in a social media blast. “How is our guy going to be shown the Quan if he can’t get to free agency on time? This has got to stop. My family has been in the business for a long time, and it just keeps getting worse and worse.”
“You had me at BS,” Tyler’s girlfriend retweeted.
Predictably, fans sided with Tyler but the team was defiant.
“The fans have to chill,” said Jose Cabrera, assistant to GM Ron Collins. He then went on to add a confusing coda. “If there’s anything I’ve learned in my three years here it’s that running a club is tough work. You’ve got a lot of moving parts, and now that I know how it’s done guys like me can see how great this move was. A real GM is always optimizing value. Owners know that. That’s why they’d hire a guy like me rather than your average fan on the street. They know I'd put a great product on the field for as long as I could."
Fans are already going apoplectic on Cabrera and the team as a whole. "They sign McNeill, and that's all good--then they pull this kind of crap," said Melli Pawinski, a paralegal with the Yellow Springs Social Net Collective. "It's all a horrible game gone wrong. The Cabrera calls us all idiots! We see through it, believe me, we do. All this, and not a Landis to show for it!""
Tyler himself was more stoic. “It’s all good,” he said. “Lucas (McNeill) gave me a call this morning and we talked about what he went through. I just want to play ball.”
