A's GM Denies Aggressive Pursuit of Max Fried: Did Nightengale Swing and Miss? 

So Bob Nightengale says the A’s were aggressively pursuing Max Fried before he signed that monster deal with the Yankees. A’s GM David Forst says that’s simply not true. Who do you believe? Is this just a case of semantics, where the A’s maybe made a cursory inquiry but weren’t truly aggressive? Or is Nightengale completely off base? More importantly, does this shed any light on the A’s overall strategy? Are they secretly planning a big splash, or are they content to stay under the radar? What do you make of this discrepancy?