Now This Is the Story of the Expos’ Castaways

No surprise and no secret: The Montreal Expos are preparing for their annual winter payroll purge.

That means Cy Young Award candidate Pedro Martinez, second baseman Mike Lansing, first baseman David Segui and catcher Darrin Fletcher could be traded. Maybe Henry Rodriguez.

Come one, come all. Best offers accepted.

“The probability is pretty small that those players will return in 1998,” Expo General Manager Jim Beattie said.

“In some small ways we’ve already had discussions with teams about Pedro and Mike.”

The pitcher and/or second baseman fit the Angels’ needs perfectly, and Disney is in position to trade an outfielder (Garret Anderson) and pitching prospect (Matt Perisho, for example) without overly inflating the Expo budget, while throwing in cash as well.

The Dodgers? Well, hearing that Beattie is talking openly about dealing Martinez and Lansing, executive vice president Fred Claire said, “If he makes that determination, he’s not going to have trouble finding interested parties. I know his phone number and he knows mine.”

Claire and Beattie talked about Lansing last summer before Eric Young returned to Los Angeles.

Reacquiring Martinez, of course, would allow the Dodgers to redeem the Delino DeShields trade and reunite Martinez with brothers Ramon and Jesus, both Dodger pitchers.

That’s just speculation, but Montreal’s plans seem definitive.

“Everything we do from this point forward will point to fielding a championship club in our new stadium,” Beattie said. “We’ll point to 2001 rather than 1998 in terms of our planning.

“We’re all committed to the thought of a championship club--not next year, but when we’re in our new stadium.”

The problem with that is that city support--financial and otherwise--for a new stadium is still far from guaranteed.

So the Expos are selling next century on the come, while starting from scratch again next year, insisting they lost $13 million this year despite a modest payroll of $17 million and revenue-sharing income of about $9 million.

The remarkable Felipe Alou simply rolls with the punches.

“There’s a crab in the Dominican, where I’m from, that’s called stone crab,” the manager said. “They have one big claw that’s especially good to eat. They let the claw go each year and it grows back as big as ever. That’s the way we are. We lose big players but come back and make more. It’s going to be like that again next year. We’ll be back.”

THINKING BLUE

There’s a new sense of urgency emanating from Claire, who says, “We need to figure out how to get to the next level. This one isn’t good enough.” The priority, he says, is a shortstop to replace the retiring Greg Gagne, but as he mulls the protected list and trade possibilities and tries to decide if Paul Konerko is ready and whether he can afford to lose an Eric Karros or Todd Zeile, there is one other priority: left field power by a left-handed hitter.

Neither Todd Hollandsworth nor Karim Garcia supplied it in ‘97, and Claire said, “Frankly, I was disappointed, and I’m not going to pull punches. There comes a time when young players have to perform and deliver, or you look elsewhere.”

That time has apparently come. Hollandsworth or Garcia could be traded before the Nov. 17 expansion draft, or one or both could be lost in the draft. Neither figures to be among the Dodgers’ initial 15 protected players.

CROSSROADS

As the Florida Marlins prepare for the National League Championship Series, the Colorado Rockies, their expansion colleagues, prepare to improve this winter. It won’t be easy and won’t be cheap. The Marlins lavished $89.1 million on six free agents last winter. Colorado owner Jerry McMorris said he expects a payroll increase of about 10% from the $45 million of 1997, which will coincide with the Rockies becoming a full contributor to revenue sharing, costing them about $8 million to subsidize less fortunate brethren.

“We continue to have high expectations,” McMorris said. “We were disappointed with the end result of the season.”

The Rockies matched their franchise record with 83 wins but finished third in the West. A wild card in ‘95, they had reached the playoffs faster than any expansion team in history.

“The early success with the organization has set a high mark of where we want to be, and I want the standard to be high,” Manager Don Baylor said. “To be the only expansion team in history to have three seasons over .500 in its first five years is a heck of a feat, but it’s not enough.”

The first goal: Re-sign free agent eligible Andres Galarraga and Walt Weiss. The latter has said he will move from shortstop to second base to make room for Neifi Perez, but it’s a move he will make only if he remains with the Rockies. Ex-Rocky Eric Young has been lobbying Claire to pursue Weiss as the Dodger shortstop.

AND . . .

Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of baseball’s minority hiring committee, insists that won’t play into the decision on a managerial successor to fired Terry Bevington, but among the early favorites are Marlin bench coach Jerry Manuel and New York Yankee hitting coach Chris Chambliss, both minorities. . . .

Fired pitching coach Dan Warthen stopped short of saying he was made the scapegoat for the San Diego Padres’ disappointing season, but “to consider me the primary reason . . . is not realistic. They singled me out.” . . .

Warthen said part-time broadcaster and class-A pitching coach Rick Sutcliffe was a disruptive influence in the clubhouse and that the job will be easier for the next pitching coach “if he’s lucky enough to get those people out of the clubhouse. That’s mostly inclusive of Sutcliffe.” . . .

Assistant General Manager Dave Stewart, an admirer of Warthen’s and vice versa, has been asked to consider the pitching coach job but is inclined to remain in the front office, further advancing his goal of becoming a general manager. . . .

So the Minnesota Twins have signed a letter agreeing to sell to North Carolina banker Don Beaver unless the Minnesota Legislature finances a new stadium. Power play? Well, acting Commissioner Bud Selig, who will meet with Minnesota legislators on Monday, is a close friend of Twin owner Carl Pohlad while Beaver, who would move the team to Charlotte, helped Selig arrange some of the financing for his new Milwaukee stadium. Serpentine? Indeed. . . .

Dept. of You’ve Gotta Have Heart: The Chicago Cubs were 0-75 in games they trailed after the eighth inning this year.