Baseball / Ross Newhan : Despite Appearances, Collusion Not Dead Issue

The winter baseball meetings get rolling today, and it appears that the owners--perhaps fearful of impending penalties--finally have realized that collusion doesn’t pay.

Second baseman Steve Sax, who was paid $800,000 by the Dodgers last season, has moved to the New York Yankees for $4 million over 3 years.

Pitcher Mike Moore, paid $481,950 by the Seattle Mariners last season, has moved to the Oakland Athletics for $3.95 million over 3 years.

Catcher Bob Boone, paid $883,000 by the Angels last year, has moved to the Kansas City Royals for $883,001 and a chance to play regularly.

Outfielder and designated hitter Ron Kittle, paid $300,000 by the Cleveland Indians last season, has moved to the Chicago White Sox for $1.3 million over 2 years.

Boston Red Sox left-hander Bruce Hurst, the plum of this year’s free-agent crop, has received 3-year offers of $4.7 million or more from 4 teams.

Is collusion dead, or is the evidence merely circumstantial? The answer isn’t clear.

There is obviously some legitimate bidding, but it is just as obvious that collusion lingers.

In fact, it is more public than ever.

This year, the clubs have agreed to put their free-agent offers on record in an information bank.

Each time an offer is made, the respective club calls the owners’ Player Relations Committee to record the information, making it available to any of the other clubs.

Thus, there is the possibility of bids for bids’ sake, with the PRC compiling a diary that it can show to an arbitrator to prove that there were lots of offers to lots of free agents.

With each club knowing what the other has bid, the offers generally have been made in modest steps. There haven’t been the wide differences that marked the bidding era before collusion.

Hurst, for example, was offered $4.7 million, excluding incentives, by the San Diego Padres. The Red Sox offered $4.8 million. The Angels went to $4.9. The Red Sox countered with $5 million. The St. Louis Cardinals came in at $5.1 million but withdrew it Friday.

The Major League Players Assn., of course, isn’t happy with the process and asked arbitrator George Nicolau for the equivalent of a temporary injunction as one of his penalties in the Collusion II case.

Nicolau, currently taking testimony in both the penalty phase of that case and the evidentiary phase of Collusion III, made a two-part ruling.

He rejected the injunction request, saying it didn’t fit the time frame of Collusion II.

But he agreed to accept testimony on the information bank as part of Collusion III because of evidence that its roots extend to the winter of 1987-88, the period under examination in that case.

Donald Fehr, executive director of the players’ association, said that the open comparison of bids is a flagrant and continuing violation of the collective bargaining agreement. But, he was asked, is it realistic to think that the clubs can ever be stopped from comparing bids--either privately or publicly?

“I suppose not, but if that’s the basis on which they’re going to proceed, then I don’t see much hope (for a relationship based on the trust of a collective agreement),” he said.

The relationship will be tested again when the agreement expires at the end of the season. Both sides have already initiated a strike fund, and the clubs have continued an effort to include lockout clauses in contracts covering the 1990 season.

In other words, players would lose their salaries either way: a strike by the union or a lockout by the owners.

It is generally agreed that the relationship has never been worse and that the conspiracy of the last 3 years has served to reawaken union passions among younger players who had become complacent about labor issues.

Surveying the current market, Fehr said: “It may be a case where things are better but still not right. I think that part of it is obvious.

While more than 80 free agents remain on the market, the depth of collusion cannot always be measured by movement alone. The size of contracts offered by clubs attempting to retain their own free agents is another yardstick.

The Texas Rangers, faced with vigorous competition from the Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Phillies for shortstop Scott Fletcher, responded with an offer that undoubtedly delighted Fehr and every agent who relies on comparative statistics--not to mention Fletcher, who jumped at it.

Paid $575,000 in 1988, Fletcher is now guaranteed $3.9 million over the next 3 years. Fletcher batted .276 last season, but his range is considered only slightly better than his power, which is nonexistent. He set a club record in 1988 with no home runs in 515 at-bats.

The Athletics’ signing of Moore made him the club’s highest-salaried pitcher. General Manager Sandy Alderson said he did not pursue Hurst because the contract disparity between Hurst and his other pitchers, primarily veterans Bob Welch and Dave Stewart, would have been too great.

“My goal is to maintain a reasonable relationship among all our contracts,” Alderson said, having quietly paved the way for Moore’s signing by extending Welch’s and Stewart’s contracts.

Welch got a $400,000 signing bonus and $1-million guarantees in both 1989 and ’90. Stewart received a $300,000 signing bonus and $850,000 guaranteed for each of those years.