Furcal says no to Braves, returns to Dodgers

The Braves’ winter of discontent continued Wednesday, when shortstop Rafael Furcal reached a contract agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers — two days after the Braves said they had an agreement with Furcal.

One week before Christmas, the Braves have coal in their stockings and something other than holiday cheer for Furcal’s agent, Paul Kinzer.

“I think you have to be upset with the turn of events,” Braves general manager Frank Wren said. “We don’t do business this way. You don’t expect people you have to deal with to do business this way.”

Wren said he and Kinzer negotiated all contract details Monday night and the Braves sent a term sheet to the agent’s office for Furcal to sign Tuesday morning. Term sheets are the final step, after an agreement is reached.

Wren said the term sheet was never returned.

“We were very surprised,” he said. “After reaching an agreement on Monday night, and being asked to produce a term sheet for signature on Tuesday morning, which we did, we were surprised that they didn’t return the term sheet. … All of a sudden, they said they needed to go back to the Dodgers.”

The Braves’ offer was for three years and $30 million, with a fourth-year vesting option. Furcal got a three-year, $30 million contract with the Dodgers that includes a $12 million option for 2012, the Associated Press reported.

The Braves had Furcal, who spent the first six years of his career in Atlanta, penciled in as their leadoff man and planned for him to form a dynamic double-play combination with shortstop Yunel Escobar.

Though Kinzer indicated Wednesday that moving to second base wasn’t ideal for Furcal, Wren said Furcal had indicated it wasn’t an issue if he could get back to Atlanta and play for Bobby Cox. Second baseman Kelly Johnson was prepared to move to the outfield, but the Braves might also have traded Escobar or Johnson in a deal to acquire a premium starting pitcher.

So much for that. Furcal is staying in L.A. The Dodgers improved their two-year offer to Furcal after terms of the Braves’ offer were leaked Monday.

“All the deal points were negotiated [Monday] night,” Wren said. “We didn’t have anything signed. We just had the word of the agent that Raffy was happy and they were good with everything, as [Kinzer] put it.”

Kinzer hasn’t returned repeated phone messages left by the Journal-Constitution since Monday. He was asked Wednesday in New York about the evolving Furcal situation. Kinzer was in New York at a news conference with new Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez, another client.

“They [Braves] know we didn’t have a signed contract, that we didn’t have even a verbal agreement,” said Kinzer, hours before Wren gave a very different account. “We had, ‘Things look very good and Raffy’s going to sleep on it.’”

The Braves thought Monday that a deal was imminent. Numerous media outlets around the country reported late Monday and Tuesday that the Braves and Furcal had reached an agreement and he only had to pass a physical.

The Braves were about to book a flight for Furcal to come to Atlanta for a physical. They kept waiting for the term sheet, which never came.

By Tuesday afternoon, Kinzer, who is based in Atlanta, said publicly that no deal was done and that the Dodgers were still in negotiations for Furcal.

“It’s not done until we sign off and there’s a physical exam,” he told ESPN.com Tuesday, “and we haven’t gotten that far. Until a letter of agreement is signed, we don’t even start the process to get him to Atlanta for a physical.”

He never signed the agreement. By Wednesday night, Wren knew Furcal wasn’t coming to the Braves, though no one from his camp had called.

“I have not heard anything back yet,” the GM said. “I don’t expect anything. What I’m hearing is that he’s going to L.A.”

Wren said there’s nothing to be done legally, because he had no signature on a deal. He must move forward in a rough winter. He’s filled one of three offseason priorities — add two good starting pitchers and an outfielder with power.

The Braves traded for workhorse veteran starter Javier Vazquez but have been shut out in other high-profile pursuits.

They spent six weeks negotiating with San Diego on a trade for Padres ace Jake Peavy, before Wren announced he was pulling out of those stalled talks and turning attention to other pitchers.

The Braves shifted focus to Toronto free agent A.J. Burnett. They made the first offer to the American League strikeouts leader, then struck out two weeks later when Burnett chose a slightly larger offer from the New York Yankees.

With the top-shelf pitching market thinning rapidly, the Braves jumped into the Furcal chase in the past week. Oakland made an offer for more years (four) and dollars ($38 million), but Furcal hoped for a solid offer from L.A. or Atlanta.

He got it from the Braves. That motivated the Dodgers to raise their own offer after it became clear Furcal wasn’t jumping on the larger Oakland offer.

On Wednesday in New York, Kinzer was asked why the Braves might have become so convinced they had a deal with Furcal. “You’ll have to ask them,” he said. “They never received any signed documents, or anything. … I’m sorry if they were embarrassed.”