Josh Hamilton and B.J. Upton were among several high-profile free agents who turned down $13.3 million offers from their former clubs yesterday as the annual general managers’ meetings ended and team officials headed home for what figures to be a busy month of negotiations.
Also rejecting the one-year guaranteed offers were Kyle Lohse, Michael Bourn and Adam LaRoche.
According to USA Today, the maximum length the Rangers are willing to re-sign free-agent outfielder Josh Hamilton is three years, meaning it’s unlikely he will return.
* Lee MacPhail, the longtime baseball executive who ruled in the Pine Tar case and later became part of the only father-son Hall of Fame pairing, has died. He was 95.
The oldest Hall of Famer died Thursday night at his home in Delray Beach, Fla.
“There’s not much I haven’t done off the field other than commissioner,” he said during a 1985 interview with The Associated Press.
In the second generation of one of baseball’s most prominent families — his son, Andy, also was in the front office for several teams — MacPhail’s most well-known moment in baseball came in 1983. He upheld Kansas City’s protest in the Pine Tar Game against the Yankees, restoring a ninth-inning home run to the Royals’ George Brett — also a future Hall of Famer.