The Ken Griffey Jr. Negotiation, Research Paper Example

The problem that is in this case study is the fact that Ken Griffey Jr., who is a gifted baseball player and has excelled at both hitting and fielding, is seeking a move from the Seattle Mariners to a baseball team that is located in the state of Florida, which is the preference of his family as his children will be schooling in the state.

Based on this predicament, the Seattle Mariners stand to lose their prized asset. This has created a conflict between the franchise and the player himself. The fact is that the franchise is allowed to trade the player without the players consent, which would be the ideal solution for the two parties involved (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2007). The general problem is the fact that the Mariner’s general manager Pat Gillick, stands to lose his prized asset for free at the end of his contract, and Griffey had made plans on moving to Florida to continue his career.

With the predicament it is essential for Pat Gillick to trade the player as he has no intention of remaining at the franchise (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2007).This resulted in Pat Gillick being involved in player trade with the Cincinnati Reds, as they provided the best deal for his prized asset. Based on the fact that Gillick stood to lose Griffey, he was in a weaker negotiating stand point.

Based on his position, Pat Gillick needed to bolster his team based on the general weaknesses that ailed the team throughout the season. The general solution was to get players that had some potential as well as add some quality to the team in the process. The weaknesses of the team were mainly in the positions of First and Second Basemen, left handed Starter and Right handed Closer. As a result of the negotiations, Gillick managed to get Pokey Reese, Sean Casey, Denny Neagle and Scott Williamson. This meant that Gillick got a good deal from the negotiation given his position on the matter.

It was essential for Gillick to add some quality in a number of positions, as it was the best solution in terms of covering for the loss of Griffey. This also meant that since the players do not command the same salary as Griffey, the franchise would cut down on the salary costs. The negotiations meant that Gillick managed to get young talent that could develop into potential stars for the franchise, resulting in the development of a winning team. (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2007)

An alternative was for Gillick to acquire the services of veterans of the league, which would add a large volume of experience to the team and would serve a development factor for the younger athletes of the team (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2007). The use of veterans would serve as a cheap alternative for Griffey and still provide a winning team that would be based on experienced players rather than players that would need some polishing (development on their potential). The investment in veterans will serve as a short term plan as the veterans will not be a able to support the team for long, but they can be used to serve as a potential role model for the younger players of the franchise, who may develop to be great players much in the same mould as the veterans (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2007). This can serve as a win-win situation based on the use of experiences as well as the development of future stars or assets for the franchise.

Reference

Lewicki, R. J, Barry. B, & Saunders, D. M. (2005)NegotiationReadings, Exercises, and Cases (5th Ed.),New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin, USA