While the airwaves around Chicago were burning up the past few days about the Cubs' front office supposedly letting Ryan Dempster listen in on their talks with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the accusations started to fly that what the Cubs reportedly did was unethical and lacked integrity.
However, did anybody bother to ask Ryan Dempster exactly what happened and then put his version up against what Cubs GM Jed Hoyer says happened?
I called Dempster Monday and spoke with him at length about the events surrounding last Tuesdays trade deadline deal that sent him to the Texas Rangers for two minor leaguers. He was emphatic that at no time did he ever listen in on any conversation between the Cubs and Dodgers.
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"I hung out in the Cubs offices playing Golden Tee in the break room and saying some goodbyes to people in the offices that I have known for as long as Ive been a Cub," Dempster said. "I also wanted to be accessible to Theo and Jed so that if a deal came up that they needed my approval on I would be easy to find. At no time did I ever listen in on any phone calls between the Cubs and any other team."
I also spoke with Cubs GM Jed Hoyer and he denies that Dempster listened in on any phone calls with the Dodgers or anyone else.
"We had Ryan in here so we could keep him apprised on the talks as they developed throughout the afternoon," Hoyer said. "With a firm deadline of 3:00 p.m., things were happening quickly and we wanted him to know all of the possibilities that were in play. At no time did Ryan ever listen in on any phone calls without someones knowledge. If that were true I would understand the Dodgers being upset but that wasnt the case as he never listened in on any calls."
Dempster did speak with Dodgers GM Ned Colletti and it was after that call that the decision to accept a trade to the Texas Rangers was made. The Dodgers' offer, according to multiple sources around baseball was not a strong one and after talking with Colletti it became obvious that a trade to Los Angeles was not going to happen.
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"I got on the phone with Ned Colletti and we had a short conversation but it was obvious that a deal wasnt going to get done so I agreed to go to Texas, Dempster told me.
It is understandable how people may have thought that Dempster was listening in after hearing the comments of Theo Epstein after the trade deadline. Epstein relayed the story of Dempster being in the Cubs offices prior to the 3 p.m. deadline.
"We joked about it every day," Epstein told a group of beat reporters. "And in the end, once he came to our office and actually heard the conversations we were having with L.A., he realized: OK, maybe thats actually not going to happen.Let me consider a couple other places.
But I think it was helpful to have him there. He could hear firsthand that it probably wasnt going to happen. If someone really wants to go to a place, you can tell them over and over again its probably not going to happen. But unless theyre convinced of that, they may not want to move on to their second choice."