UPDATE: First he signed, then he didn’t, then he signed and then he didn’t: Chien-Ming Wang’s agent is now saying that the reports are inaccurate, there is no deal with the Nats, and that Wang hasn’t finalized anything with anybody.
And with that, I’m officially out of the Wang business. He could carve his signature into a granite contract with a diamond-tipped chisel in front of 200 notaries public tomorrow and I won’t accept it as fact until I hear three pinky swears and a blood oath as to the deal’s veracity.
10:28 A.M.: There was a lot of back and forth yesterday about whether the Nats and Chien-Ming Wang had a deal or not. Pete Abraham said they did first, only to have some others say, no, no deal is in place. I had called these later reports “debunkings” but in hindsight that was a really poor choice of words, because it automatically assumed that the latest reports were right, and there was no reason to assume that. Why? For one thing Abraham, I later learned, is really tight with Wang’s camp and is trusted by people who know things to know what’s going on with him.
For another thing, it appears as though Abe was right. Last night the China Times reported that, yes, there is a $2 million deal with the chance of it getting to $3 million if certain incentives are met. Later Ken Davidoff of Newsday tweeted the same thing, and no one has since said anything to the contrary.
So apologies to Mr. Abraham and congratulations to Mr. Wang and the Nats, who I think will make a nice pairing.