Dave Dombrowski

That would have changed perhaps the direction that we would have gone.

We did have some other alternatives on things we would have pursued.

But in one sense, when I say this, I mean, it's not something that just at the last second we've been looking for in the wintertime.

I talked to JT's agent.

His name's Matt Riccardo.

We call him Cotto.

And as I said,

fine individual and does a good job with the agency.

But as Kato had told me, he says, Dave, I've talked to you more this wintertime than I've talked to my fiance.

I've had so many conversations with him over the winter starting right after the season.

And we always wanted to bring JT back.

That was always a priority for us.

They knew it.

We also knew that he wanted to come back.

And it really became a situation just there was a disagreement as far as dollars were concerned is what it came down to.

And we just couldn't really bridge that gap for an extended time period.

So with that, and really kind of leading into the winter meetings, we had to at least be open-minded because we didn't know if we would close the gap, even though we had the mutual desire to do that.

So we ended up being in a position where we...

discussed other catching alternatives.

They knew we were doing that.