A day after the Padres failed to sign their first-round pick, pitcher Karsten Whitson, general manager Jed Hoyer explained -- or at least tried to -- what went wrong. "It's one that we're still scratching our head on," Hoyer said. On Tuesday, Hoyer told MLB.com and XX 1090 AM, the Padres' flagship station, that the team reached an agreement with Whitson, the ninth-overall pick, for $1.953 million on the day of the Draft. The Padres initially had slotted Whitson at between $1.9 million and $2 million, as per the recommendation of Major League Baseball. "Somewhere along the way, over the next couple of weeks, I don't know who got in his ear, but he completely changed his tune from being thrilled to being a Padres and having that verbal agreement to us having to double that amount to sign," said Hoyer, who said conversations with the Whitson family before the Draft were never centered on money. "Things got a little rocky. We held firm ... that we had a verbal agreement. We thought they would come back and honor that word." When Oakland signed outfielder Michael Choice, the No. 10 overall pick to a $2 million on July 28, the Padres increased their offer to $2.05 million. They made another offer, this time of $2.1 million to get closer, as Hoyer said, to what the eighth overall pick got. Read more: http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news...nt_id=13551230&vkey=news_sd&fext=.jsp&c_id=sd
