The second part of that did not come out of Henry's mouth. That is somebody's interpretation of it. He did say that that protocol exists, and it WOULD seem to imply that that means if you offer someone a promotion, they will grant that person permission to interview. Still, granting permission doesn't at all imply anything about an agreement on compensation or that they'll agree to allowing the person out of his/her contract easily. In fact, he didn't even really come out and acknowledge that what the Cubs are offering is a non-lateral move (which is, to some extent, a subjective matter of opinion), though it's likely that they, at least somewhat, agree that it is. Bravo, David! Several people need to read the bolded as many times as necessary before it sinks in. Page after page of discussion about is it or isn't it a lateral move is completely irrelevant to the current issue of compensation. I think most of us realize that the quote doesn't refer to him leaving the Red Sox for nothing and at the same time most of us agree that there should be compensation involved in the process. What people do take from the quote is that there is an obvious difference between a manager leaving one team to take a manager position on another team and a GM on one team leaving to another to become President of Baseball Operations. Think back to the logic of why they don't refuse interviews to teams offering their guys promotions. Because they don't beleive its fair to their employees to block them from advancing their career with a promotion. As such, it stands to reason that they wouldnt also block their guys from accepting those positions by asking for unreasonable compensation, or at least compensation comperable to what the White Sox got or the Mariners or whoever has traded a manager to another team.