Hall-of-Fame pitcher Greg Maddux set the record straight about picking the Atlanta Braves when he was a free agent in December 1992, and it sure is disheartening for the Yankees.
According to Maddux, he had decided to sign with the Yankees, but never received an official offer because a team executive suffered a heart attack while he was in New York to cement the deal.
This new development, which was shared by Maddux this week when he appeared on David Cone’s “Toeing the Slab” podcast, contradicts decades-ago reports that the legendary right-hander had turned down $34 million over five seasons from the Yankees to sign a five-year, $28-million deal with Atlanta.
Here’s how Maddux told the story when he was asked by “Toeing the Slab” co-host Justin Shackil how close he was to signing with the Yankees after seven seasons with the Chicago Cubs:
“Oh, I was there. I went there to sign with the Yankees. I was shocked. I didn’t get offered a contract. It’s not college. I didn’t go there just for a recruiting trip. You kind of go there to sign the contract and everything. I had the nice day. I went around. I went to a show. I went to dinner. They said they’d be in touch with a contract offer and I’ve heard bits and pieces over the years, but I don’t know who it was …. Some of the higher-ups, one of the guys had a heart attack and that’s why I wasn’t made an offer. Gene Michael was the GM at the time. (Owner George) Steinbrenner was out of baseball. He was suspended and whoever was calling the shots then apparently had a heart attack. So I didn’t have a contract offer. So I got on the plane and went home.”
Crazy.
That’s when the Braves, Maddux’s first choice all along, made their move after previously telling agent Scott Boras that they regrettably had to pass on making an offer due to payroll concerns.
“We had a layover in Chicago,” Maddux continued. “I remember landing in Chicago and calling Scott and he said, ‘The Braves were able to make you an offer,’ which originally was the team that I wanted to go to before I went to New York. (They) weren’t able to trade a player and have room for me, so then I was off to New York to go play there. For some reason, (the Braves) came in with an offer and I told Scott, ‘Do your Boras stuff. I want to play in Atlanta.’
“I hopped on a plane, and three hours later I landed back in Vegas and I had an offer from the Braves.”
Maddux, who was 26 at the time and coming off the first of four Cy Young seasons, had apparently previously received a verbal offer from the Yankees that was accepted, but their failure to present the paperwork due to the unknown team exec’s heart attack changed everything.
“Gene Michael did call me and say, ‘You haven’t heard our offer. We’re going to make you an offer. You can’t sign with them yet.’ But at the time I wanted to win. This was ‘92-’93. The Braves had been to the postseason twice. They had a good young team, a lot of good pitchers.”
The Braves had lost the previous two World Series with two other future Hall-of-Fame starting pitchers in their rotation, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine. The Braves returned again in 1995 with Maddux and prevailed.
There was another reason Maddux unofficially left money on the table to play for Atlanta.
“I did want to stay in the National League,” he said. “I’d much rather face a pitcher than a DH any day of the week. And I enjoyed hitting and playing and being a baseball player. I didn’t want to go to the American League and just pitch.”
Ironically, the Yankees missed out on Maddux after passing on Cone, a former Mets ace who was a free agent and interested in joining the Yanks before opting to sign a three-year, $18-million contract with the Kansas City Royals, his hometown team. At the time, Cone’s deal made him the highest-paid pitcher in baseball in terms of average salary.
The Yankees settled for improving their rotation that winter by signing free agent Jimmy Key and trading for one-handed pitcher Jim Abbott. Both left-handers had their moments for the Yankees, Abbott most notably by throwing a no-hitter in 1993 and Key by virtue of 18-6 and 17-4 seasons in ‘93 and ‘94 plus a World Series win during the 1996 championship season. But neither was close to being in Maddux’s league.
“This one hurts,” Michael told the New York Times after Maddux signed with Atlanta. “He’s the best one out there. I never thought I could say this, but he’s a steal at $28 million.”
The Yankees weren’t the toast of baseball at the time, as they were coming off a 71-91 season that was their fourth losing year in a row.
“Greg, above all, wanted to win,” Boras told the Times after the signing. “The Braves offered him the most substantial degree of assurity of taking the World Series.”
According to a Times’ report, the Yankees thought they were getting Maddux. Michael, who was Maddux’s first big-league manager when they were together on the 1986 and 1987 Cubs, traveled to Las Vegas that winter to start pitching the Yankees over a golf game. When Maddux later traveled to New York thinking he was there to sign, he and his wife looked for homes in New Jersey with Michael tagging along, then all three dined at the Post House in Manhattan before attending a Broadway musical, “Miss Saigon.”
“When I dropped him off at the (Plaza Hotel) after the play, I remember Greg saying to me he was going to call Scott and tell him to make him a Yankee,” Michael told the New York Daily News in 2014.
But the Yankees’ exec falling ill led to Maddux leaving town without contract. He was ready to put his John Hancock on a contract, but “never officially received an offer from the Yankees,” and the rest is history.
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
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