BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : A’s Trying to Acquire Flexibility

Andy MacPhail, general manager of the Minnesota Twins and shrewd architect of a small market power, means it as no disrespect to counterpart Sandy Alderson of the Oakland Athletics but he is skeptical that the A’s were thinking only of the 1992 stretch and postseason play when they traded Jose Canseco to the Texas Rangers for Ruben Sierra, Bobby Witt and Jeff Russell.

“You have a 7 1/2-game lead (the A’s American League West margin over the Twins at the time of the trade) and you don’t fool with it,” MacPhail said from Toronto the other day. “You don’t go near the phone.

“I was very surprised, and I think it had more to do with trying to put their payroll in line for ’93 rather than acquiring pitching for the stretch. You can’t trade for a guy (Sierra) who’s going to miss a week or two of the stretch because of chicken pox and sell it as a deal for the stretch.”

MacPhail’s point is that what the A’s are really trying to do is save the $13.6 million that they were going to have to pay Canseco through 1995 so they could use it to pay Sierra and Mark McGwire and maybe some of their 13 other players eligible for free agency.

And MacPhail said he could salute that. He said that combining the A’s deal with the trade of David Cone by the big-market New York Mets for two prospects, “clubs may be starting to act like they’ve been saying they should.

“I knew it would happen inevitably, but with the expansion money in (the owners’) pockets I thought it would be another year before it did. It’s obvious now that a lot of clubs have reached the saturation point and are trying to get as much talent as they can for what they can afford.

“Sandy Alderson is probably the best operator of a team there is, and he’s trying to structure his payroll to get the most flexibility. He made a courageous move. If it bites him this year, he’s going to be made the fall guy.”

The Twins made their own move, but financial considerations were not the prime motivation for sending pitcher Bill Krueger to the Montreal Expos for outfielder Darren Reed.

The recently ineffective Krueger was headed for the bullpen, where the Twins already have three left-handers: Gary Wayne, David West and Mark Guthrie.

They also have what MacPhail calls a “smorgasbord” of candidates for the fifth starting spot, compounding the vulnerability of southpaw Krueger, who won 10 games for the Twins as a modestly priced free agent, another in a long line of MacPhail’s comparative bargain bonanzas.

Reed may fit the mold, as well. He is a “high-risk, high-reward guy,” MacPhail said, who is out of options, missed all of ’91 because of injury, had no place to play with the Expos and delivered a game-winning RBI for the Twins in his first time at bat.

With Canseco gone, Sierra ill and McGwire out of the Oakland batting order with a chest injury, the Twins moved from 7 1/2 out to 4 1/2 in a hurry.

“I’m happy about that, but I’m not ordering any rings,” said MacPhail, who already has World Series rings from 1987 and 1991. “We’ve got a tough road ahead of us, and I fully expect Sierra, Witt and Russell to help the A’s as much as Sandy thinks they will.”

A major trade for sure. Part of a new era of financial responsibility?

MacPhail views it as such and he qualifies as an expert, having had to practice restraint in his comparatively small market. He will also have to stretch his financial parameters in postseason negotiations with a free agent named Kirby Puckett.

“No, I wasn’t about to trade Kirby,” he said, laughing. “How dumb do you think I am? If Kirby ever leaves, he’ll be leaving us. We’re not going to leave him. “

RIGNEY’S REASONING

Certainly, said Bill Rigney, the A’s senior adviser, finances played a part in it, releasing some of the Canseco money for what he called the priority attempt to sign McGwire and possibly some of the A’s other free agents, including Sierra, who makes more than Canseco--$5 million to $3.6 million--and who will seek an even larger long-term deal than Canseco’s five-year, $23.5-million contract.

Thus, Rigney said, the saving on Canseco will only stretch so far, so the primary consideration was adding Witt, with all of his blazing potential and frustrating control problems--he seemed to be regressing during a 0-5 August--to a suspect rotation and Russell to the bullpen.

“We’re at a pivotal point age-wise,” Rigney said. “We don’t know how many chances we’ll have to win in the near future and we felt this was our best chance to win again this year. I mean, we simply felt we didn’t have enough pitching.

“With (Bob) Welch hurt and there being a question if he’ll pitch again this year, our rotation came down to (Dave) Stewart, (Ron) Darling and (Mike) Moore. We’re at a point in the season where we need outs, and now we have a Witt to help get us to the sixth inning and a Russell to help get us to (Dennis Eckersley).”

Nevertheless, trading Canseco, with all of his productivity, fan appeal and psychological impact on the other players in the A’s lineup, was “the toughest call we’ve ever had to make here,” Rigney said.

“I mean, trading Rickey (Henderson, to

the New York Yankees) was easy,” Rigney said. “We had nothing in the farm system and we got five young players in return and were eventually able to send two of them back to the Yankees to get Rickey again.”

If the Toronto Blue Jays were thinking about a playoff with the A’s when they added right-hander Cone to a rotation that includes right-handers Jack Morris, Juan Guzman and Todd Stottlemyre, the A’s may have been thinking of the right-handed dominance of the Toronto and Baltimore Oriole rotations when they acquired the switch-hitting Sierra, who joins left-handed hitting Harold Baines to give the A’s better balance in the middle of their lineup.

The Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds used power pitching by right-handers Orel Hershiser, Tim Belcher, Alejandro Pena, Jose Rijo and Rob Dibble to eat up Bash Brothers Canseco and McGwire and the other right-handed A’s hitters in the World Series of 1988 and 1990.

Right-handers were 7-1 with a 1.47 earned-run average while pitching 83% of the total innings against the A’s in those two Series. Over the last four years, the A’s have a .659 percentage against left-handers but a more modest .566 against right-handers.

Sierra could help reverse the A’s postseason vulnerability, providing the departure of Canseco doesn’t leave them too vulnerable to get that far.

THE NEW BASH

McGwire bemoaned the loss of his partner in punch, but said Canseco will be an even bigger threat in Arlington Stadium than in the dead air of the spacious Oakland Coliseum.

“It’s going to be mind-boggling to see how he puts things together in that yard,” McGwire said. “I would have to say Mr. (Roger) Maris might lose his record (of 61 home runs in a season) in a year or two, and it’s going to be awesome to see what (Canseco) and Juan Gonzalez do in that yard.”

Gonzalez, with 32 home runs since June 1--20 since July 21--has caught and surpassed the sidelined McGwire for the American League lead with 39. Canseco, with 11 homers in 45 games at Arlington, has homered once every 15.27 at-bats there, compared to 16.25 at Oakland. Canseco and new teammates Gonzalez and Dean Palmer have combined for 83 homers this season, more than the team totals for Milwaukee, Kansas City, Boston and the Angels.

Of course, Sierra had provided the Rangers with some of that same clout. In his five full seasons before 1992, Sierra had 123 homers and 343 extra-base hits. Canseco, over that span, had 171 homers and 302 extra-base hits, missing half of the ’89 season because of injury.

FLORIDA OR BUST

The San Francisco Giants were already a bust, but they have been an even bigger one since the announcement of the proposed sale and move to Florida.

As of Friday, they were 8-17 since, with a nine-game losing streak.

“It’s getting so bad that two infielders beat us,” Manager Roger Craig said, referring to losses to the converted Tim Wakefield of Pittsburgh and Jim Bullinger of the Chicago Cubs.

Al Rosen, the club president, stormed into the clubhouse and blistered the players after one recent loss.

“I know it’s difficult to play when you’re not in the race,” Rosen told reporters later. “But your pride and ego have to take over. I’m embarrassed because we’re in fifth place, because I put the team together and because I have to watch it.”

Particularly disturbing has been the inexplicable performance of third baseman Matt Williams, who had 16 homers as of Friday but was batting .213.

REDS’ RUINS

An absence of power--Paul O’Neill has only two home runs since June 24--and a tired bullpen have plagued Cincinnati’s attempt to catch Atlanta in the National League West.

The overworked bullpen, trying to compensate for the absence of injured starters Tom Browning and Greg Swindell and the tender elbow that has restricted Jose Rijo to two complete games, leads the league with 43 saves as of Friday but also leads it with 15 losses and 22 blown saves.

Norm Charlton was 25 for 33. Dibble, who keeps saying he wants to be traded so he can become a closer, as former teammate Randy Myers was last winter, was 17 for 22. Steve Foster, recalled to give the relief corps some relief, injured his shoulder throwing a suitcase into his truck.

The disappointing season, both on personal and team levels, has not marred Rijo’s verbal touch.

On the Reds’ front office: “I look in the papers and see guys making trades and we bring up eight minor leaguers.”

On a 42-minute players-only meeting: “If we wanted to point fingers we’d have needed three more hands to count to 25.”

SHAKY SITUATION

The A’s may have a tough time signing potential free agent Jeff Russell, one of their new acquisitions. Russell is one of the few players who dislike California.

“It’s really my wife,” Russell said. “She won’t come out here. She’s afraid of earthquakes.”