What Mistakes Were Made in the Griffey Negotiation? by Whom?

Amanda Thomas

October 5, 2011

Ken Griffey Jr. Case

1. What mistakes were made in the Griffey negotiation? By whom?

There were many mistakes that were made in the Griffey negotiation. Someone had faxed a proposal to Seattle forging a letterhead and signature for the proposal of Griffey Jr. They also announced they were bringing Griffey home before the Reds agreed to even do so. This left some hostility with Griffey's current team and fans. The Mariners also had no authority to give Goldberg permission to contact the Reds. That had lied only with the commissioner's office and Goldberg did not know that. The contact had been illegal, but they did not consider it serious enough to jeopardize the deal. After this happened the baseball officials were willing to look the other way which made Griffey affordable to trade once again even though Linder did not put any financial restrictions on Bowden. Now that they were considering Griffey they figured the price would go up in the trade. Gillick wanted Pokey Reese in the deal but finally agreed to Cameron instead. Bowden refused offering him Edmonds, but they didn't want him either. Gillick insisted on Reyes and Perez but advised that they shouldn't let Reyes keep them from Ken Griffey Jr because they would only trade Perez. I feel the Mariners were asking for too much to begin with to trade Ken Griffey. The Mariners did not communicate well and should have taken into account the time crunch they were in. They were also looking for to teams to trade Ken with that he did not want to go to. Ken should not have limited his trading to only four teams either. In the end they ended up with four people they originally did not want and sold Ken at a cheaper price.

2. What effects did those mistakes have on the process and outcome of the negotiation?

The Reds were able to sense some urgency with the Mariners which swayed the offer making Ken Griffey Jr be swapped at a lower price. Though Ken was able to go home he was traded at a lower price and for the price of four people. And if you remember the four people were not who the Mariners originally wanted. Time played a major factor in the way the Mariners lost. Because they were in such a time crunch they should have sat down to gather their thoughts so they could negotiate better with the Reds. Another huge problem was the lack of communication between the Mariners and the teams. I also feel that because they announced Ken was going home before he actually was this made hostility with his current fans. This would cause Ken to want to go home no matter what losses he might encounter to protect his family. There were also a few illegal things that began to happen which would make the trade hard to determine if