It's probably just the no-news dementia setting in, but I'm beginning to entertain the possibility that this doesn't get done. Epstein is going to cost the Cubs $18.5 million over five years. That's, what, $13 million or so over the imaginary replacement executive. That's already a pretty costly outlay. We talked about this earlier in the thread, and I think the value of a guy like McNutt is something like $12 million (well, actually I think it's quite a bit higher, but for the sake of simplicity). So if the Red Sox genuinely believe that McNutt is the absolute lowest they can go, then they are asking the Cubs to value Epstein at $25 million over a no-strings-attached replacement. I don't think they can do that. We're definitely looking at either a wait-a-year or a walk-away scenario, depending on how willing Epstein is to wait a year. So the question is, are the Red Sox serious about McNutt being the sticking point. I would normally say no, but the more we learn about the Red Sox organization, the less faith I have in their rationality or their ability to serve self-interest when the chance to screw over an outgoing employee is involved.