Alex Anthopoulos

It just didn't materialize.

Right.

So this is, you know, once a deal is closer within range, we'll try to get it done.

And, you know, if we can get it done early, there's obviously tons of advantages because it gives us clarity for the remaining moves.

Yeah, no, I think it wasn't, we weren't looking to do that in that order, but we knew we needed to address closer.

He was prepared to sign, prepared to sign on a one-year deal.

And, you know, he was a priority for us.

We wanted to get him signed back.

You know, that was, as I mentioned, it's a conversation we had as a front office in July.

We looked ahead.

I think I mentioned at the trade deadline our offseason started at that time.

So that was one of the discussions we had of, you know, do we want to bring this guy back?

What are the alternatives?

And so on.

And we knew him well.

We thought he'd had a rough start, but all the underlying indicators were good.

And we wanted to keep him for the durability aspect.

He's a phenomenal teammate.

He's a great fit.

We just know him so well.