In Era of Big Salaries, Some Expensive Talent Will Be Riding Bench

The pinewood benches, sometimes filled with splinters and cracks, hardly seem to be the kind of setting for millionaires and near millionaires.

But these are the mid-1980s and baseball, through free agency, arbitration and oftentimes stubborness, has created a new animal in the national pastime: the high-priced, bench-warmer.

Where 30 years ago a player who seldom saw action would barely be making above the minimum salary, baseball has seen instances in which some of the highest priced talent on a team would be sitting down much of the time.

Among the possibilities this year are Jason Thompson and Steve Kemp at Pittsburgh, Julio Cruz of the Chicago White Sox, Jerry Mumphrey of the Chicago Cubs, George Hendrick at California and Ben Oglivie at Milwaukee.

Other potential big salaried stars could lose their regular jobs. Ron Cey of the Cubs and George Foster head a list of veterans who must rebound on contending clubs to stave off part-time duty.

We’re not talking about injuries that will make players sit down; we are talking about big contracts for players who didn’t pan out or didn’t fit into a team’s plans.

The Chicago White Sox, for example, have an embarrassing situation. After winning the 1983 Western Division crown, Chicago rewarded Cruz with a $750,000 a year pact. Not bad for a career .240 hitter. But Cruz slumped the last two years and is fighting to share the second-base duties.

“We all know what he made and what he did for our club,” said Sox President Eddie Einhorn. “But the bottom line is that we have a chance to win and you have to go with your top players.”

If Cruz, who ironically re-signed with the Sox after being wooed by then announcer and now new General Manager Ken Harrelson, does not have a hot spring, he could be one of the most expensive pinch runners in baseball history.

Pittsburgh’s Thompson signed a multimillion-dollar salary three years ago but had a sub-par season last year. He is coming off arthroscopic knee surgery and faces an uphill battle to regain a starting job for new manager Jim Leyland.

Leyland, the former White Sox third base coach, inherits a team that may have misjudged and overpaid some veteran talent. Kemp is reported to be in the $400,000 to $500,000 range but could, along with Lee Mazzilli, see more time on the bench should Leyland come out of spring training with a youth movement.

“I want to take a look at everyone and make the evaluations then,” Leyland said before the start of spring training.

A similar situation exists in Milwaukee which, like Pittsburgh, is coming off a disappointing 1985 campaign.

In Chandler, Ariz., Manager George Bamberger could elect to go with a full strength youth movement with promising players like Billy Robidoux heading the list. That could mean that a player like Oglivie or two other high-priced outfielders, Rick Manning and David Green, who was acquired from the San Francisco Giants during the winter, could be expensive fans for most of the Brewer contests.

Very easily a high-priced veteran could start with his job but lose it, either in spring training or in the opening weeks of the season.

Cey and Foster are in the near $1 million a year bracket. Both had so-so seasons (for them) last year. Neither the Cubs nor Mets can afford to carry an aging player that isn’t producing in the competitive National League East.

“I’ve heard all that bunk about pressure from above to play someone because of their salary,” says Cubs’ manager Jim Frey from his view at Mesa, Ariz. “But that has never entered into it anywhere I’ve been. Ron Cey is the third baseman here because he merits it, not because he earns a lot of money.”

Cey doesn’t have much competition at third but Frey could switch .300 hitter Keith Moreland from right to third to make room for another potential expensive bench-warmer, Mumphrey, who earns an estimated $450,000 a year, to get off the pines and into the starting lineup.

Foster is the left fielder for the Mets. But with a promising young player like Len Dykstra waiting in the wings, the Mets could be tempted to make Foster a part-time performer if he starts slowly.