Yes. Fred would want to leak a story that would keep some of his supporters from bothering to go to the caucus for him or that would cause them to turn out for someone else because they now believe a vote for him would be wasted since he's leaving the race.
That would be very shrewd.
Getting yourself not some but LOTS of free air-time, talking about how you are in the race, blaming another campaign, and getting YOUR message out is actually very schrewd.