Monday, January 20, 2110
Santo Domingo
by Odin LocksIt has now been over a month since our last update on the effort to deal
Serhat Karpat by the
Los Angeles Stars front office. While we didn't want to publish an update devoid of information, we have recently been given some juicy nuggets by a disgruntled team source.
It seems that the delay has in fact been caused by an ill-timed vacation by the Los Angeles GM. This source confirmed that several employees in team administration have been frustrated by the GM when trying to get his response to various offers for Karpat from around the WBA. When we attempted to contact the GM directly, a representative told us only that "(he) values his family time immensely and will make no apologies for taking this much needed vacation with them." The friction in the front office seemed quite real as we spoke with the various parties.
But what about the deal itself? Amazingly we were told that the Stars are currently considering six different trade offers for Karpat, making this the biggest trade discussion in league history. While all deals include good to great young prospects, a few of the offers have added draft picks to sweeten the pot. And yet at this point no offer stands out significantly above the rest, which actually seemed to concern my source greatly. "Look, I know it should be great that we have multiple strong offers, but if we don't get an offer that clearly separates itself from the pack there is a very real possibility that the GM is just going to draw a number out of a hat. When I asked him to schedule some time for us to review each offer in detail he told me '
I don't have time for that right now, if nobody blows us away then just pick one or whatever. I'm on vacation.' It's maddening."
While I seriously doubt it will come down to a random draw, there are definitely concerns in Los Angeles headquarters about this process and this news will no doubt cause Karpat's suitors to worry about where they stand. As always we will update you as soon as we hear anything.