Setting aside his usual reticence to discuss such matters publicly, Nomar Garciaparra took strong exception Monday night to assertions made by Red Sox executives regarding how much time he would have missed because of his injured right Achilles’ tendon.
Chief Executive Officer Larry Lucchino and general manager Theo Epstein reiterated Monday that they had little choice but to trade Garciaparra to the Cubs after he told team trainers and manager Terry Francona last week that he would have to miss “significant time” because of the injury.
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Epstein said he informed Cubs GM Jim Hendry on Thursday that talks might have to break off because he could not trade Garciaparra if the shortstop was hurt and likely headed for the disabled list. But Hendry, relying on reports filed from his scouts and satisfied by a conversation Saturday between the Cubs and Red Sox trainers that Garciaparra could continue to play, made the deal.
Garciaparra, aware of published reports that raised the question of whether he had misled the Red Sox and informed of team executives’ comments by agent Arn Tellem, called Monday night from Denver, where the Cubs will open a series with the Rockies on Tuesday night, to give his side of the story.
“I don’t know why they brought up private conversations,” Garciaparra said. “But I’ll just give you the facts.
“We were concerned with how the Achilles’ was going, so I talked to the trainers and the manager to make sure we were all on the same page.
“Was it sore? Yes. Did it hurt? Yes. But it was about avoiding going on the disabled list, it was about avoiding time off. I also was saying that I couldn’t continue playing every single day [this] season. I never said I couldn’t play.
“The issue was the six games on turf [three in Minnesota, three in Tampa Bay]. But I was playing on it. Maybe I’d have to miss more than one day once in a while, maybe consecutive days to make sure it was OK. But after I missed the first game Friday [in Minnesota], I was in the lineup the next day.”
Garciaparra insisted he didn’t tell the team he would have to go on the DL, a direct contradiction to assertions made by Epstein that Francona and the trainers had called him last week and told him that Garciaparra said he would have to miss “significant time” in August and that there was a “significant chance” that he would have to go on the DL. Epstein said he was so alarmed by that report that he arranged for principal owner John W. Henry to hear the trainers’ report firsthand.
“I wanted to make sure that I would be able to go the last month of the season,” Garciaparra said. “But I didn’t say I’d have to miss significant time, or that there was a significant chance that I would have to go on the DL. We talked about the possibility that I might do some DH-ing certain times when we were playing on turf.
“You heard what [Cubs manager] Dusty Baker said, that I might have to miss about one day a week. I’ve never denied [having to miss some games]. Coming off an injury, I knew I probably would have to battle it.”
Epstein, also in a telephone interview, said Monday that he was particularly distressed to hear that Garciaparra had told the trainers and Francona that he feared the tendon might “blow out,” a potentially catastrophic injury that would have ended Garciaparra’s season and possibly placed his career in jeopardy.
Faced with a scenario in which the options at shortstop for the final two months were Garciaparra in a very limited role and newcomer Ricky Gutierrez, Epstein said he felt compelled to make a trade for another shortstop. When Hendry, despite the full medical briefing he received from Epstein and from his trainers, still was willing to take Garciaparra, the Sox moved ahead, consummating the complicated transaction just a few minutes before the 4 p.m. deadline.
Garciaparra denied Monday night that he had told the Sox he felt the Achilles’ might blow out. “There are times when I’m running that it feels tight and stiff, like a tight hamstring,” he said.
Published reports have suggested that Garciaparra may have misled the Sox about his condition. Fueling those suspicions in part is a conversation Lucchino said he had with Garciaparra right after the trade.
“I called him to wish him good luck and good health and said thanks for all you’ve done,” Lucchino said Monday. “I told him that we all had a lot of respect for what he’d done for the franchise.
“Then I asked him, `How’s the heel?’ He said, `Great.’ I said, `Great? A couple of days ago you said you had serious concerns.’ He said, `That was then. It’s great now.’
“Maybe that was a medical assessment. An injury like that does go up and down. But I was puzzled by that. I said I was a little puzzled. He said, `It’s great now.’ I said, `Oh, I guess. Good luck, and I’m glad you’re in the other league.”‘
Garciaparra gives a much different version of that call. He said he was back at the team’s Minneapolis hotel, preparing to travel to Chicago and speaking with his parents by phone, when he saw on his cell phone that Lucchino was calling.
“I had just gotten traded,” Garciaparra said. “He had just gotten rid of me. I was talking to my parents. Do you think I really wanted to talk to him right now? He was the last person I wanted to talk to, to be honest with you.
“I wasn’t saying much. I was really short. He was saying thank you and stuff. Then he said, `By the way, how’s the Achilles’?’ That’s the first time he’d ever asked me about the Achilles’.
“I said, `It’s great. It’s fine.”‘
Was Garciaparra being sarcastic?
“Yeah, I was. I’d just gotten traded. He said, `What do you mean, it’s great?’ I said, `It bothers me, but it’s fine. Yeah, it bothers me, but I’m fine.’ Just like, I’m playing. I never said, `I’m sad now.”‘
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Garciaparra said he was distressed that all of this has been raised in the aftermath.
“Stuff is coming out, they’re saying stuff about my agent,” he said. “It’s sad. Here’s the truth. Those are the facts. This is it.
“I’m not mad at them. I’m not going to rant and rave. I’m not jabbing anybody. If they don’t want me, fine. They traded me. Why can’t that be enough?”