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A couple small points:
It used to amaze me in researching Al Qaeda how everybody seemed to know bin Laden first hand. I thought half the guys were lying to impress. It took me years to realize it was a simple function of the size of the organization.Which is to say: A baseball franchise is nothing like an F 500 organization. It's tiny, a mom-and-pop operation. One result of this is that everybody knows everybody - there aren't many layers and hence not many filters and everybody rubs shoulders with everybody else. Some of those shoulders don't offer themselves to cry upon. Some are downright hostile. It can make for some pretty chilly offices.
Lincoln is unusual in that he's effectively the franchise owner but he most notably does not have the experience of other owners. That is, he didn't make a fortune doing something. He's an employee. Same with Chuck.
Baker did plenty of trench work to produce this piece. You can bet that in addition to what's on the page there are hundreds of pieces of evidence that couldn't be included because of space limitations or they seemed off or unprovable or whatever.. You don't as a good reporter, which Baker clearly is, use someone's criticism if it's a one-off. He's probably been gathering string on this piece for years. Also, you can only build a fully rounded piece if you have equal information from both sides. The M's declined to cooperate, which is their right and is more normal than I wished, but it leaves the piece unbalanced through no fault of Baker's.
I've written stories critical of individuals or companies or politicians who would not be interviewed. What happens in those cases is that you are compelled to do even more reporting to make your case. A good reporter, Baker, in this case, would lean over backward to be fair.