The tried to sign him, either to what he asked for or still a very fair offer, and when he passed on it and then they were able to work out deals with X and Sale then keeping Mookie became a luxury tax issue if they even thought they still had a good chance to keep him at that point. If Mookie had signed first then they probably trade X instead.Wait - it was widely thought that the reason Mookie was traded was because of the luxury tax etc. and there were all kinds of leaks and sports radio segments devoted to alternately killing Sox or agreeing with them on this. What was the point of the leaks if they actually offered him what he wanted?
I think they're right that it's better for the media to call them cheap because there's no legitimate argument that ownership has been cheap at all since they took over the team, in fact the complete opposite.