Quick Fixes of Past Are Hurting the Yankees Now

In the 17th spring of George Steinbrenner, the bills are coming due.

It has been eight years since his New York Yankees finished first, three since they finished higher than fourth. It has been almost five months since he made a managerial change, which incidentally was his 16th in 16 seasons as owner of the Yankees.

He did satisfy his appetite for change, sort of, last week by bringing in a new general manager (Syd Thrift). He announced that the job had become too complex for one man (Bob Quinn), although it may have been that three weeks of sloppy baseball had him massaging his trigger finger to make some move, any move.

Thrift, who made 15 trades in his three years of reshaping the Pittsburgh Pirates, quickly went to work, getting designated hitter Steve Balboni from Seattle and utility infielder Tom Brookens from Detroit.

Yet, to the various scouts and managers and fans who’ve seen the Yankees this spring, acquiring a Balboni and a Brookens to fix this troubled team is like bailing out the Atlantic with a thimble.

In a division, the American League East, where Toronto, Boston, Milwaukee and Detroit appear to be evenly matched, the Yankees appear to have problems that run too deep and across too many areas.

There have been too many years when quick-fix moves with free agents were made at the expense of patience with player development. Almost every club experiences such ebbs and flows at one time or another, but Steinbrenner fought it bravely, bringing in this free agent or that manager for eight years.

In 1989, it appears the problems have all come together.

Right fielder Dave Winfield is out indefinitely after having back surgery. The Yankees had no replacement ready even though Winfield turns 38 this year. Shortstop Rafael Santana just had elbow surgery. There was no replacement ready.

Last year’s center fielder, Claudell Washington, was allowed to escape via free agency, and outfielder-DH Jack Clark was traded to San Diego for pitching help. With Clark and Winfield gone, leadoff man Rickey Henderson becomes the team’s only reliable right-handed bat.

What else is left of the Yankees?

For one thing, Alvaro Espinoza at shortstop. He’s 27 and has been released by the Astros and Twins. He has had three at-bats in the big leagues since 1986. The classic good-field, no-hit shortstop.

They’ll put rookie Roberto Kelly in center to replace Washington and hope the scouts who say he won’t hit in the majors are wrong.

They’ll put Mel Hall in right. He was recently acquired from Cleveland. He hit .109 against left-handed pitching last year, and the Yankees are still looking for a righty swinger to platoon with him.

They’ll put Mike Pagliarulo at third base. He hit .170 against lefties last season. Brookens hit .220 against lefties.

Even after the free-agent signing of second baseman Steve Sax and the return to good health of first baseman Don Mattingly, the Yankees appear to be in trouble.

“We need some help, no question about it,” Manager Dallas Green said.

Then, there’s the matter of pitching, which like hitting, the Yankees don’t have much of.

Green named Tommy John to start next week’s opener against Minnesota ace Frank Viola. For a left-hander nearing 46, he’s one of baseball’s remarkable stories.

For a team that wants to be in a pennant race, he may not be the answer. He had a 6.00 ERA after Aug. 1, and in his last six seasons, has gotten his ERA under 4.00 once.

The No. 2 starter is John Candelaria, who missed the final six weeks of last season with a knee problem that has flared up again this spring. He’s 35 and hasn’t pitched 185 innings since 1984.

After that, the Yankees will go with Al Leiter, an untested left-hander many scouts compare to a young Ron Guidry. Then there are two free-agent additions, Andy Hawkins from San Diego ($3.6 million over three years) and Dave LaPoint from Pittsburgh ($2.575 million over three years).

Of the five Yankees starters, none has had a 15-win season since 1985. Hawkins went 18-8 for the National League-champion Padres that season, 27-29 since.

Their hope is that all the pieces will fall together. That Winfield will return by the all-star break. That a Balboni-Ken Phelps platoon at DH will scare pitchers enough that Mattingly won’t be walked 150 times. That, maybe, just maybe, John and Candelaria have one more decent season in their fragile bodies.

At the very least, the Yankees may be interesting. Green and Steinbrenner have volatile tempers, and longtime Yankees watchers are waiting for their first clash.

Meanwhile, Thrift is no shrinking violet, and in a week on the job has already filled up more notebooks than some Yankees general managers have in their entire tenures.

He had been a realtor in Fairfax, Va., for nine years when the Pirates hired him, and he needed just three seasons to unload a clubhouse full of deadwood and turn a moribund team into contenders.

“What I did there might have won me a lifetime contract in some places,” Thrift said. Instead, he was fired. While there’s little doubt he was instrumental in saving baseball in Pittsburgh, there’s also little question he could be a difficult employee.

At various times, he has been demanding, egomaniacal and overbearing, and last season he picked up some huge contracts late in the year apparently without getting permission from his superiors.

“The ego stuff is bull,” he said. “If you’re talking about confidence, yes, I had that. I’d devoted much of my life to something. Am I supposed to apologize for that? Am I supposed to act like I don’t know what I’m doing? I’m a baseball man. I’m no bookkeeper, and I’m not trying to insult bookkeepers, either.”

At Yankee Stadium, he may need to be a miracle worker, and he admits as much, saying, “Yeah, George told me to do for the Yankees what I did for the Pirates.”

The Pirates improved by 28 games in three years, and, “They’ve got young talent that should get better and better,” Thrift said. “But I’ll tell you one thing, there’s no perfect team on earth. If there is, they’re probably not going to be hiring someone. We’ve got a lot of good people here--Dallas Green, Bob Quinn, George Steinbrenner. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and none of us is afraid of work.”