Santiago May Miss Season Because of Knee Injury

Toronto catcher Benito Santiago, injured in a car crash last month, may be sidelined for the 1998 season.

“Santiago is suspected of having ligament damage to his right knee,” Blue Jay spokesman Jay Stenhouse said Friday.

Santiago may be examined by Dr. James Andrews next week in Birmingham, Ala.

Santiago, 33 next month, hit .243 for Toronto last season with 13 homers and 42 runs batted in. If he can’t play, Darrin Fletcher would become the Blue Jays’ No. 1 catcher.

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Baltimore outfielder Tony Tarasco lost his salary arbitration case, giving owners a 5-2 lead with one case remaining.

Tarasco was given a raise from $270,000 to $340,000 by arbitrator John Sands instead of his request for $485,000. Tarasco, 27, hit .205 with seven homers and 26 RBIs last season.

Florida and Charles Johnson argued the final case in Phoenix. The 26-year-old catcher, eligible for arbitration for the first time, has asked for a raise from $290,000 to $3.3 million. The budget-cutting Marlins offered $2,250,000.

Johnson hit .250 with 19 homers and 63 RBIs last season, and hit .357 in the World Series against Cleveland with a team-high 10 hits, one homer, three RBIs and four runs.

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You won’t get an argument from American League umpires. They don’t call high strikes, and don’t feel they should apologize for it.

“We don’t call that pitch from here to there, and it’s been documented that we don’t,” veteran umpire Dave Phillips said, raising his arm from just above the waist to his chest.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to sit here and tell you, ‘Oh, yeah, we do, you just don’t see it right.’ . . . It’s pretty much trained. We’ve trained ourselves not to because we know what’s accepted and what isn’t accepted.”

League umpires gathered in St. Petersburg, Fla., this week for a two-day workshop that focused mostly on mechanics, but which also dealt with such subjects as the strike zone and what can be done to speed up games.

Umpire Larry Barnett agreed with Phillips that strictly enforcing a rule stating the strike zone extends above the mid-torso area is not the answer to shortening games.

Instead, they said, it’s likely to create confusion and spark arguments leading to ejections that would make games even longer.

“If I can call this pitch up here and not have Albert Belle or Frank Thomas or Ken Griffey Jr. complain about it, and get away with it, then I’d do it,” Barnett said.

“But I’ve been around long enough to know [a strike] is right here,” he added, lowering his arm. “I didn’t come down in the last rainfall. I’m not going to change this game. I’m going to do what I think will make my life easier.”

That’s not to say umpires wouldn’t be receptive to change. They just feel it would take a concerted effort on the part of baseball officials, owners, managers, coaches and players, as well as themselves.

“We’re all going to have to do it together. We can’t do it alone,” Barnett said. “Too much heat comes from doing it alone.”

Phillips said he doesn’t sense much support for a change. He said managers and coaches don’t savor expanding the strike zone because they generally ask their pitchers to keep the ball low rather than up where hitters are more likely to make solid contact.

“Off the top of my head, I can think of three pitchers who can throw the ball up here and get away with it: Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan,” Phillips said.

“The rest of them that throw up here, you know where it goes,” he said, gesturing toward the outfield at Al Lang Field. “Pitching coaches teach them to keep the ball low in the strike zone. So we perfect ourselves low in the strike zone.”

Meanwhile, AL President Gene Budig said speeding up games is a priority that he intends to address with teams during spring training. He declined to elaborate.

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Determined to boost his power numbers, Dante Bichette bulked up in the off-season, and he arrived at spring training 44 pounds heavier than a year ago.

“I hit the weights hard and I’ve never been stronger,” the Colorado Rockies’ left fielder said. “I’m not nearly in the shape I was in last year because I didn’t do much cardiovascular work. I’m not fat, though, by any means.”

Bichette, who reported to camp last year at 218 pounds to speed his rehabilitation from knee surgery, had 26 homers and 118 RBIs last season but complained of feeling “weak” at the plate.

On Friday, the first day of full-squad workouts, Bichette walked into the clubhouse at 262 pounds.

Expected to move to cleanup this year, Bichette, 34, said his focus is on driving in runs and replacing the 140 RBIs the Rockies lost when former cleanup hitter Andres Galarraga signed with Atlanta.

“I remember the Galarraga thing where he lost weight and lost some power, then came back the next year, put some weight and muscle on and had a big year,” Bichette said. “I had to lose weight last year because of my knee. But my knee is fine now.”

Bichette, who is in the last year of a three-year, $11.1-million contract, said he hoped to play between 250 and 255 pounds this season.