COMMENTARY : Pirates at Crossroads Where Young Players Become Expensive Stars

The Pittsburgh Pirates have a curiously jaded outlook for a young, talented team that should be trumpeting its coming of age as it celebrates the franchise’s first division title in 11 years.

The Pirates are savoring their moments atop the National League East--but the reasoning behind their satisfaction is a radical departure from what one might expect from a club possessed of two of the game’s brightest young stars and whose everyday starters average 27 years of age.

The window of opportunity for Pittsburgh’s success might be distressingly brief, and the Pirates know it. Said center fielder Andy Van Slyke: “We’re all looking at this like it might be our last chance at glory together. First and last, all wrapped into one year.”

Welcome to that antithesis to parity that has produced many nightmarish visions of late for Commissioner Fay Vincent--small-market baseball. The Pirates may be following a Walt Disney script on the field in 1990, but what could transpire behind closed doors here in the next few years is pure Stephen King.

The core of this club is a collection of young players on the rise. National League Most Valuable Player candidates Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla are 26 and 27, respectively. Second baseman Jose Lind is 26, third baseman Jeff King 25 and shortstop Jay Bell 24. The pitching staff is anchored by 28-year-old Doug Drabek, whose less-than-overpowering style appears to have left plenty of productivity in his right arm.

As befits their fuzzy-cheeked nature, the Pirates have the 18th-highest payroll among baseball’s 26 clubs; of the eight teams below them, only the Chicago White Sox are within 10 games of first place. So Pittsburgh is at the natural but decisive crossroads in the evolution of a promising, youthful team--the time when low-priced, young players become high-priced, middle-aged stars.

Problem is, the Pirates’ front office--a source of instability all year--has not yet demonstrated a willingness to spend the money necessary to keep the team intact.

Bonilla is the leading case in point. The right fielder is making a reported $1.25 million this season; he is due to become a free agent after next year. He insists he would like to remain in Pittsburgh, and teammates say that sentiment is genuine.

But with 80 home runs over three seasons (including 32 homers, 118 RBI and 110 runs scored this year), Bonilla is demanding a contract similar to Kevin Mitchell’s four-year, $15-million pact with the San Francisco Giants. The Pirates’ brain trust cringes at the mention of such numbers. One official said Bonilla is more likely to be traded than signed.

This is an organization on comparatively unstable footing. Pirates officials say the team will lose money this year despite its $14-million cut of baseball’s network television rights fees and a club-record attendance of nearly 2 million. The team’s estimated value is at least $70 million, but the chairman of the board, Douglas Danforth, apparently is not willing to allow the Pirates’ annual operating deficit to grow much larger.

Seven Pittsburgh players will be eligible for free agency after this season--including pitcher Zane Smith, who is 6-1 with a 1.16 ERA in nine starts since being acquired from the Montreal Expos last month. Bonilla, Van Slyke and Manager Jim Leyland are unsigned after 1991, and Bonds and Drabek can become free agents following the ’92 season.

“You have to understand that we’re not in a position to throw a lot of money around,” said General Manager Larry Doughty, whose job security is uncertain after a series of administrative blunders and questionable trades that cost the Pirates several of their top prospects this year. “For now, I just think about the present. The future around here is too clouded.”