I say the market can take its time because I’m newly married and my daughter just started second grade and I’d like to be present to celebrate both of those things, but Jagger says that’s not how free agency works, and I say I know, and so we do the meetings.
* * *
Boston
Pellegrino has the handshake of someone who wants you to know he lifts. He slides a folder across the table with numbers that are genuinely impressive and talks about legacy and championships and the history of the franchise for twenty-two minutes without asking me a single question about what I want.
I eat the steak they ordered for me.
I think about Hazel’s second-grade teacher sending an email about the holiday play last week and asking if both parents would be available to help.
When Pellegrino finally asks if I have any questions, I say no and thank him for his time. Jagger tells me to get my shit together.
I buy a Boston sticker with a clover on it for Hazel.
* * *
Houston
The warmer climate is a plus. The GM here is a woman named Dana Chu who has done her homework. She knows my fielding percentages for the last four years, my numbers against left-handed pitching, my range factor. She asks good questions and listens to the answers, and the conversation is the best one I’ve had since this process started.
I almost mean it when I tell her I’ll think about it.
On the flight back, I text Penelope a photo of the Houston skyline and she texts back a photo of Hazel’s second-grade art project, which appears to be a self-portrait of a girl with a hula hoop and a large dog.
The dog is not subtle.
Hazel wants to name the dog Goldie, she texts.
I buy a Houston magnet with an astronaut on it for Hazel.
* * *
Seattle
It rains the entire time I’m there, which feels appropriate. The organization is rebuilding, which means they want my veteran presence in the clubhouse. That’s a polite way of saying they want me to mentor the twenty-two-year-olds who will eventually take over my position. Hernandez is a good GM who is honest about where they are and what they’re offering, and I respect his honesty even while knowing my answer.
I walk back to the hotel in the rain and call Penelope. She answers on the second ring and I say nothing for a second, and she says that bad, and I say it’s fine, it’s just Seattle, and she says come home, and I say tomorrow, and she says Hazel wants to know if you’re bringing her something, and I say obviously, and she says she wants a snow globe, and I say it’s not snowing, and she says she doesn’t care, and I find a snow globe of the Space Needle in the hotel gift shop.
* * *
Atlanta
The money is the best offer I’ve seen. The GM knows it and leans on it the way people lean on a thing when it’s the strongest thing they have. The weather is good. The team is young and talented and hungry, and they’d use me well.
I sit across the table and do the math.
The flight home from Atlanta is two hours and twenty minutes. Chicago to Atlanta. I could manage that. During the season, it wouldn’t matter. I’d be traveling, regardless. In the offseason, I’d be home.
Penelope said wherever you go, we go, and I know she meant it, but I also know what that means. The house. Hazel’s school. Ripley. The life she built there.
Two hours and twenty minutes.
I eat the bread they bring to the table and tell them I’ll be in touch.
I buy a stuffed Coca-Cola bear for Hazel.
* * *
