Dodgers to Deal Piazza for 3 Marlin All-Stars

In a shocking move that slams the door on an era of Dodger baseball, the new regime running the franchise was trying to complete one of the biggest trades in baseball history Friday night by sending all-star catcher Mike Piazza to the Florida Marlins in a seven-player deal.

The Dodgers and Marlins were working on a transaction that will send Piazza and third baseman Todd Zeile to Florida for all-stars Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla and Charles Johnson, along with Jim Eisenreich and a player to be named later, probably a minor league pitcher. But the Marlins are trying to reduce their payroll, so Piazza and Zeile are expected to be traded to teams contending for the playoffs before Major League Baseball’s July 31 trading deadline.

Word of the deal emerged early Friday, but a formal announcement was delayed because the Dodgers and Marlins were waiting for Sheffield, who has a no-trade clause in his Marlins’ contract, to approve the blockbuster deal.

Sheffield arrived Friday afternoon in Los Angeles with his agent, Jim Neader, and met with officials from the Fox Group, which owns the Dodgers, at Dodger Stadium. He was expected to waive the no-trade clause if the club committed to exercising his contract’s $11-million option in 2004.

Said Neader: “We’re here trying to do a deal, that’s the bottom line.”

The deal also puts the Fox group’s stamp on the organization in a quick and decisive way. “Fox certainly wasted no time changing the O’Malley image,” said Baltimore Oriole general manager Pat Gillick

The deal, which would rid the Dodgers of their most prominent player, was brokered by Bob Graziano, a longtime aide to former Dodger owner Peter O’Malley, who now is the team president in the Fox administration. Cut out of the transaction, sources said, were veteran Dodger policymakers Fred Claire, Tom Lasorda and O’Malley. Chase Carey, chairman and chief executive of Fox Television, also played an active role in the early stages of the deal and made Graziano his point man to close the transaction.

From a salary standpoint, it’s the biggest baseball trade ever. The combination of salaries of the players involved would be the highest in baseball history at $109.3 million. The Dodgers would assume $83 million in payroll from the Marlins, including the remaining $17.7 million owed to Bonilla, Johnson’s $3.3-million contract and Eisenreich’s $1.4 million.

Claire, the Dodgers’ longtime executive vice president, has been in charge of player-personnel decisions since 1987. But Claire was told the trade was almost completed Thursday during the game against the Philadelphia Phillies, sources said, and instructed by Graziano to inform Piazza and Zeile, which he did after the Dodgers’ 4-0 loss.

That marked a stark departure from Claire’s role in such matters during his tenure under former team owner O’Malley, whose sale of the franchise to the Fox Group was ratified by Major League Baseball on March 19. There had been rumblings within the organization for months that Claire’s power had diminished under Graziano, who took the job that many thought should have gone to the 30-year Dodger employee.

And Lasorda, the former Dodger manager and a key figure in the organization’s success through the 1970s and ‘80s, wasn’t consulted about the move. He is among the best friends of Piazza’s father, Vince, and it was Lasorda who convinced the Dodgers to finally select Piazza in the 62nd round of the 1988 free-agent draft.

Sheffield may also want the Dodgers to renegotiate his current six-year, $61-million package for tax purposes as a condition of agreeing to the trade, which could derail the deal, a team source said.

“I don’t know yet [what it will take to complete the deal], we have to sit down and talk about it,” Sheffield said when interviewed Friday afternoon at LAX. “No decisions have been made. We have a lot in the contract that has to be discussed, there are a lot of arrangements that need to be made.

“There are the issues of my living arrangements, my option year . . . but I want to come here, and I’m excited about the possibility of coming here. I like [Los Angeles] and the team has a great tradition. I’ve talked to other players who’ve been here, and they say it’s a great place. I just hope we can get it all taken care of so everybody is happy.”

Failing to reach an agreement with Sheffield would cause a prickly situation for the Dodgers. Piazza said Friday he plans to be in the Marlins’ lineup today when they play the St. Louis Cardinals at St. Louis.

The Dodgers “told me it was pretty much done, so the way I look at it, I’m a member of the Florida Marlins right now,” he said Friday. “I’m just trying to get ready to be a part of the Marlins, so I really can’t concern myself with all the other stuff.

“If something happens that changes what I was told, I guess I’ll have to deal with that when the time comes. The Dodgers have made a business decision, and I accept and understand that; I now just want to concentrate on giving 150% to the Marlins.”

But the Marlins are also concerned about the fallout if the deal collapses because of Sheffield.

“We have a deal in place, but it all depends on Gary,” Marlin General Manager Dave Dombrowski said. “If he accepts it then we can move forward, but I don’t know what he wants to do.

“I know he’s receptive to talking about this, and I think he would be receptive to playing [in Los Angeles], but we can’t really say much more than that until we know for sure. We’ll just have to go from there.”

The trade moved to the fast track this week when Carey, chairman of chief executive of Fox Television and Rupert Murdoch’s top deal-maker, had a phone conversation with prospective Marlin buyer and its current president, Don Smiley, about the fate of SportsChannel Florida, which is controlled by Marlin owner Wayne Huzeinga and is also up for sale. Fox, which owns a majority of the nation’s regional sports networks, is interested in buying SportsChannel.

Carey inquired about the progress of the deal, and banged out the outline for its finalized form with Smiley then and there after learning that talks between the teams had bogged down.

But the deal was spurred by Piazza’s refusal to accept the team’s multiyear contract extension offer. Piazza, who is making $8 million this season in the final year of a two-year, $15-million deal, was seeking a seven-year contract extension worth at least $100 million.

He set a self-imposed Feb. 15 deadline for the Dodgers to agree on a deal, or would file for free agency, he said. His deadline came and went, and his contract negotiations became contentious when Sam Fernandez, team counsel, said it was hard to assess Piazza’s worth, angering the five-time all-star and career .334 hitter.

Despite reports to the contrary, the Dodgers and Piazza weren’t close on a deal. Piazza rejected the team’s final offer of six-years at $79 million in early April, and instructed his agent, Dan Lozano, to end negotiations with the team.

Times staff writers Greg Sandoval, Ross Newhan and Sallie Hofmeister contributed to this story.