Taking on Giant Task : Money Matters Have Forced San Francisco to Restructure Team, Hope for Best in Baseball’s Changing Landscape

A year ago, they jettisoned Will Clark. Now the San Francisco Giants will try to recapture their 103-victory form of 1993 without Bill Swift, John Burkett and other key pitchers.

Racked by the payroll decisions affecting all teams amid strike-related losses and the ongoing absence of a new economic system, the Giants made some tough choices.

The bottom line?

Owner Peter Magowan and others in the organization think there is more than one.

--The first: Although left with a suspect rotation, the Giants still have enough to win the National League West.

“I’d be surprised and disappointed if we weren’t in the hunt,” General Manager Bob Quinn said.

He referred to a division in which the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres are appreciably stronger, having opted to increase previously modest payrolls, and the Dodgers, economically and artistically committed to their own talent, “figure to have another fine team but could miss the leadership of Brett Butler and Orel Hershiser,” Magowan said.

He added: “A lot of people are picking us to finish last in the division, and I think they’re going to be surprised. Our pitching was also maligned in ’93 when Swift and Burkett stepped forward to have career years and we won 103 games.

“Each of our starting pitchers is a question mark, but they only need to get us to the fifth or sixth inning. Otherwise, we have everything--the best defense in baseball, middle and late relief that I’d match against anyone in the league, a powerful lineup that probably includes the strongest one-two punch (Barry Bonds and Matt Williams) in baseball and even more speed now with (recently signed) Glenallen Hill joining (Royce) Clayton, (Darren) Lewis and Bonds.”

Said Bobby Bonds, Barry’s father and the team’s hitting coach:

“I’m not concerned with the Dodgers, I’m not concerned with anyone. Give me our guys healthy and I’ll challenge anybody out there.”

--The second: All roster and payroll decisions have been based on merit, Magowan said. The ledger, he maintained, has not been skewed by the $43.75-million signing of Bonds--still owed $32.5 million for four years, including $7.75 million in ‘95, up $3 million from last year.

“Ask any owner in baseball if they’d like to have Barry Bonds in their lineup and the answer would be a resounding yes,” Magowan said. “He’s the best player in the game and worth what we’re paying him. I mean, he plays every day, he makes our other players better and he’s been the MVP in three of the last four years (actually five). And our attendance jumped 500,000 when we signed him.”

It was instant credibility for new ownership in a market that had been on the verge of losing the team.

No regrets, Magowan said. Bonds has helped the Giants’ 21 partners establish a net cash flow despite claims of losses, according to sources.

Next year, however, the partners must pay back a $10-million loan to previous owner Bob Lurie, a consideration in any payroll decision. Magowan acknowledged that there are obvious times when Bonds’ salary impacts others.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Magowan said. “You can’t have Barry Bonds and automatically add a Larry Walker (the free agent recently signed by the Rockies) or automatically retain a Will Clark or a Bill Swift on their terms.

“At some point, you have to bring your player costs in line with revenue. The only clubs continuing to spend are basically those with sold-out stadiums for the season--Colorado, Baltimore, Toronto, Cleveland, the Yankees.

“We had the third-highest payroll in baseball last year (at about $40 million) and finished five games under .500.

“Clearly, there were some adjustments in order. We made the decision to cut about $5 million, which is fairly modest compared to what some clubs have done. We said it early but waited for the market to come down so we could get more for our money and remain a competitive team.

“I mean, don’t take this wrong. The Giants are still prepared to sign players, but at the right price.”

Gone from last season are three-fifths of the rotation--Swift, Burkett and Bud Black--plus closer Rod Beck’s valuable set-up man, Mike Jackson; reliever Rich Monteleone; spot starter Bryan Hickerson and outfielders Willie McGee and Dave Martinez.

“The ultimate goal still is to put the best possible product on the field, but the budget has become an equal consideration for all teams,” Quinn said. “It’s an ongoing challenge.”

Shopping the glutted market in a recent 72-hour bargain spree, Quinn signed pitchers Terry Mulholland ($2.1 million compared to the $3.35 million he made with the Yankees last year), Jose Bautista, Mark Leiter and Trevor Wilson, then added right fielder Hill for a guaranteed $500,000 to bat behind Bonds and Williams as the replacement for Darryl Strawberry, released after his drug relapse.

The new rotation consists of Mulholland, 6-7 as a high-priced Yankee bust; Mark Portugal, 10-8 and coming off major knee surgery; William Van Landingham, 9-2 but facing the sophomore jinx; Wilson, sidelined for virtually two years by injuries, and Leiter, 4-7 in spot roles with the Angels. Ominous, indeed, but an improvement on the vacancies that existed before the signings.

Two players who had blasted management over the pitching losses--Portugal and Robby Thompson--feel a little better about it now.

“I’m not going to retract anything, but I think the moves since then put us in a whole new ballgame,” Thompson said. “It was good to see, good to hear, something we needed. I think everyone is relieved. It puts us in a very competitive situation.”

Portugal, who before the pitcher signings had predicted that the Giants would finish in the middle of the pack, said: “We’re working our way back. We still need some young guys to step up and answer the bell.”

Ultimately, some of the young guys may replace some of the rotation retreads. Sorting it out in an abbreviated spring is like cramming for a test, Manager Dusty Baker said.

He chooses his words carefully when asked about management’s decisions and the departure of proven pitchers. “Nobody in their right mind would feel good about it, but when you have financial losses, you have to do something to make it right in a hurry,” Baker said. “I won’t know if you can replace quality with quality until I see them perform, but managing replacement players taught me how to start new and start together.

“It’s very similar to ‘93, when I first got here and the pitching was very maligned and we were able to put people in their right slots and develop a good staff. We know we have one end of the book end in Beck (who has converted 40 consecutive save opportunities in two seasons). We don’t know about the other.”

Burkett and Swift were 43-15 as the major leagues’ winningest pair in ’93 and 14-15 last season when injuries to Swift, Thompson, McGee and Jackson made the first half a struggle. The Giants won 20 of their last 30 games and were only 3 1/2 games behind the Dodgers when the strike ended the season.

Burkett subsequently was traded to Texas for two prospects, then released by the Rangers rather than being offered arbitration. He signed a two-year, $6.9-million contract with the Florida Marlins. The Giants refused to offer Swift more than two years, and he ultimately signed with the Rockies for $13.1 million over three years.

The Giants retain the most successful closer of the last two years in Beck; a defense that includes five Gold Glove winners and a shortstop, Clayton, who might make it six; and a potent lineup that adds Hill, who stole 19 bases and batted .297 in 89 games with the Chicago Cubs, and long touted first baseman J.R. Phillips, who has convinced Baker that he has now “earned the opportunity” to replace Clark.

Citing the current nature of the business, Baker said: “I think Barry (Bonds) said it best the other day, in that what we have to do is what Jim Leyland has had to do almost every year in Pittsburgh. He’s had different personnel every year and still won or been successful. It’s difficult, but it can be done.”

While third baseman Williams hit 43 home runs in 115 games last season and was on a pace to match the record 61 hit by Roger Maris, Bonds hit 37 homers despite a painful elbow spur that required off-season surgery. His best roll coincided with the addition of Strawberry--”With two hitters behind me, that’s just suicide for baseball,” he said--but he’ll still have Williams and Hill, and there’s nothing he can do about Strawberry.

“He’s a good dude, but I’m not his baby sitter,” Bonds said of Strawberry. “I hope he comes back and plays somewhere. He doesn’t harm anybody but himself.”

Gunning for his fourth most valuable player award in six years, Bonds approaches the new season amid highly publicized divorce and paternity actions, but neither will disrupt his focus, he maintained, and Baker agreed.

“Barry is Barry,” the manager said. “You don’t worry about him. I mean, you only hope he’s healthy. If we had 25 Barry Bondses, we wouldn’t have any problems.”

Not true. The Giants would then have a payroll of about $195 million, which would make the current economic decisions seem like a night of Monopoly.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Call to Arms

The San Francisco Giants’ starting pitchers at the end of the 1994 season and start of 1995 season. LAST SEASON

Pitcher W-L ERA Bill Swift 8-7 3.37 John Burkett 6-8 3.62 Bud Black 4-2 4.47 Mark Portugal 10-8 3.93 William Van Landingham 9-2 3.63

THIS SEASON

Pitcher W-L ERA Terry Mulholland 6-7 6.49 Mark Portugal 10-8 3.93 William Van Landingham 9-2 3.63 Trevor Wilson did not play Mark Leiter 4-7 4.72