Arbitrator Has Biggest Decision of June Draft

Dodger scouting director Terry Reynolds and Angel counterpart Bob Fontaine Jr. continue to pile up frequent-flier mileage, searching for talent in preparation for the amateur draft June 2.

Business as usual?

“There’s no other way to approach it,” Reynolds said. “We’re proceeding as if everything is normal and assuming it will remain normal.”

That depends on a ruling by arbitrator Dana Eischen that could seriously affect the cost of signing drafted players and, some in management fear, might destroy the draft.

This basically involves the case of former Florida State outfielder J.D. Drew, drafted in the first round last June by the Philadelphia Phillies, the No. 2 pick overall.

Drew, winner of the Golden Spikes award as college player of the year in 1997, set his sights on the golden egg, seeking a signing package through agent Scott Boras of $11 million. The Phillies said that was far beyond sensibleness and Drew ultimately made his professional debut last summer with the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League.

Boras and Drew contend that left him exempt from future drafts and eligible to sign with any of the major league teams as a free agent, once Philadelphia lost its exclusive rights on May 26, one week before the ’98 draft.

Last September, however, in what seemed to be a direct response to that contention, and the possible financial chaos of other drafted players following suit, management tried to close the loophole by rewriting Major League Rule 60(i), which defines a first-year player as pertains to the “First-Year Player Draft.”

From a first-year player being defined simply as one who was not a professional, the definition was changed to one who had not signed a major league or minor league contract. Minor league, according to the same rules, is defined as any league belonging to the National Assn., which independent leagues do not. Thus, in management’s view, any college or high school player signing an independent league contract would still be subject to the draft.

Management called this a clarification of rules already agreed upon with the players’ union. The union called it a unilateral change that had to be agreed to through collective bargaining and filed a grievance. Eischen heard the grievance in late March and is expected to rule on it in the next 10 days, giving the Phillies about a week to close a deal before possibly losing exclusive rights.

The Phillies have offered Drew a record $2.6-million signing bonus as part of a package that could total, depending on his performance, $6 million over four years, but general manager Ed Wade said Boras is only trying to destroy the draft.

“I just hope that at some point J.D. becomes a big league ballplayer and not Exhibit A,” Wade said. “At this point, he seems to be an example of Scott’s attempt to change the system, and that’s unfortunate. He has a lot of ability and should be out playing. I mean, given the direction we’re headed with young players, if he had come to camp with us this spring, he might be in the big leagues already.”

Boras claims he told the Phillies before the draft that “multiple” teams had told him they would meet Drew’s price--”Only Scott’s parish priest knows if those teams really exist,” Wade said--and that this has nothing to do with him and everything to do with the young player.

“The Phillies think they drafted a country kid without principles, but you can’t force a kid to go through what he’s gone through,” Boras said. “I mean, there are no guarantees signing with an independent team, but he’s been willing to take the risk to defend his rights.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday that in the grievance hearing, Boras testified that those multiple teams that helped establish Drew’s $11-million market value were the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees. But under questioning by management lawyers he would not say--and could not document--that either team ever definitively said they would offer $11 million or more.

There are complex nuances, historical footprints.

Boras has definitely drawn aim on the draft. He challenged it with former Georgia Tech catcher Jason Varitek. He challenged it with Drew even before the union had filed the grievance.

He describes Drew as a franchise player and says the $11-million figure was prompted by the $10 million that Travis Lee and Matt White received from the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays after four players selected in the 1996 draft were ruled free agents on technical violations by the drafting clubs.

Similarly, Boras first sought free agency for Drew last June by claiming the Phillies mailed his contract to the wrong address. That was rejected by management’s executive council, an example, Boras said, of “fellow owners ruling on another owner’s interests.”

It is important to remember now that arbitrator Eischen isn’t ruling on Drew specifically but on the validity of the rule change and the union’s claim that the change had to be agreed to.

Management lawyers insist that Eischen can’t declare Drew a free agent, that he can only validate or invalidate the rule change.

If he validates it, Drew will have to sign with the Phillies, go back through the draft or consider other legal avenues.

If Eischen invalidates it, leaving the ambiguity of the previous language in place, Drew could ask the executive council for free agency, but he would again be at the mercy of a management board and almost certain to lose. Besides, that process alone would extend beyond the Phillies’ May 26 signing deadline and the June 2 draft, leaving him with no apparent alternative but another summer with the Saints.

The fear among many in baseball is that if Drew does become a free agent it will encourage others to circumvent the draft and sign with independent teams, ultimately creating bidding wars for the best of the unproven talent. But Fontaine, the Angel scouting director, said he doubted that there would be a full-scale assault on the independent leagues by drafted players.

“There’s a lot at risk and a lot at stake if a player goes out and gets hurt or doesn’t play well [in an independent league],” he said. “There will always be kids out there who want to sign and play [with the teams that drafted them].”

In the meantime, Drew is preparing to return to the Saints, a baseball halfway house.

“People are quick to say we’re being used by Scott Boras, but it’s a two-way street,” owner Mike Veeck said. “We get to showcase a great talent without a personal investment in the outcome [of the grievance].”

Veeck, in his ownership of several minor league teams, has followed many of the maverick traditions of his late father, Bill Veeck. He laughed and acknowledged that the $11 million Drew seeks is a considerable sum, particularly considering, “My dad bought the Chicago White Sox in 1975 for $9 million.”