My hope is that Gary and I will continue having discussions directly with each other, and the rest of it can stay out of the press. Hopefully this is all behind us and we can go forward. There will be a time and a place for the option.
Obviously it's something that's unique and difficult. We'll lose some guys for a period of time. Hopefully they produce at high levels for those clubs, stay healthy and get back to us whenever their WBC season is over.
It happened there. Right now, he's OK to stay out there and try and help the U.S. team obviously in a limited way now.
I knew (the option year of his contract) would be the first question you guys asked him. So I wanted to stay ahead of it and get on the same page with him, rather than play catch-up.
I know Hideki wanted to stay and we wanted to keep him, and that created a great environment for us to get it done. Thankfully, we got it done with a few hours to spare.
I don't know if Brian will stay or leave, but I do know he's gotten awfully tired of seeing Tampa get credit for all the deals that work out and him getting the blame for all the ones that don't. It's like he's the GM in title only.