Holiday Shopping

The holiday shopping fair known as the winter baseball meetings opens in Anaheim today with a shortage of pitching and the never-ending economic escalation producing high prices, few bargains and no guarantee that there will be significant trades or signings over the next five days.

Ken Griffey Jr., who has yet to prove he can pitch, remains the most attractive of the few attractive players thought to be available and an obsession for General Manager Jim Bowden of the Cincinnati Reds. Bowden has been the most zealous pursuer of Griffey since the Seattle Mariner center fielder indicated that he wanted to be traded to a team closer to his home in Orlando, Fla.

Bowden and Seattle counterpart Pat Gillick--whose situation is compounded by the free-agent eligibility of shortstop Alex Rodriguez after the 2000 season--have been testing each other’s nerves in a game of high-stakes poker for more than a month. And Bowden, who earlier this week had said he was folding, is back in the game.

“I’m not coming to Anaheim to go to Disneyland,” he said before leaving Cincinnati on Thursday.

“It’s no disrespect to Disney, but I’m not interested in Goofy. I’m coming to get Griffey and bring him back to his hometown, where he belongs.

“It’s the only reason I’m going.”

Bowden’s candid comments are rare in the cat-and-mouse business of trade negotiations, but he is at a point, he suggested, where it is time to get this done--if it can be done.

“I’ve made 12 to 15 offers,” he said. “Pat and I have had dialogue almost every day. We’ve made very little progress, but we already have another meeting scheduled in Anaheim.”

A team trading for Griffey will have to give up at least three players, then hope it can sign Griffey to a record contract extension averaging close to $20 million a year. Gillick insists that two or three teams are still involved, but aside from modest interest by the New York Mets, no other team seems to be pounding at his door.

“I’m optimistic we’ll be able to trade [Griffey] at the meetings,” Gillick said. “I wouldn’t say it’s definite, but I do think it’s possible.”

It is certainly not easy.

As a player with 10 years in the majors and five with the same team, Griffey has right of approval. He also has asked the Mariners not to give interested clubs permission to discuss contract with him before closing a trade.

It’s a risky proposition for any interested team, but Bowden said he has been willing to work within the parameters.

“We obviously don’t want to give up our future--either in players or dollars,” he said. “We won 95 games last year with a $35-million payroll and are proud of that. At the same time, Ken Griffey is one of the best players in the game and would be a positive influence on the team and city.”

Griffey grew up in the Cincinnati area. His father, whom he calls regularly for batting tips, is the Reds’ hitting coach. A new stadium, offering Griffey attractive dimensions at which to take aim at Henry Aaron’s career home run record, is scheduled to open in 2003, and the Reds, who train in Florida, are no longer owned by penurious Marge Schott.

All of that speaks to the Reds’ interest and Griffey’s possible approval if the Reds and Mariners can agree on players. The acquisition of John Olerud may help, since the Mariners no longer will be asking for first baseman Sean Casey, a Cincinnati untouchable.

It is generally believed that Bowden will give up hard-throwing relief pitcher Scott Williamson, the National League rookie of the year, center fielder Mike Cameron, infield prospect Travis Dawkins and either Denny Neagle or Brett Tomko. The stumbling block has been Cincinnati’s refusal to include second baseman Pokey Reese, who would bat leadoff for the Mariners and could move to shortstop when and if Rodriguez leaves.

Said Brian Goldberg, Griffey’s agent, “I have to believe the Mariners are at a point where they need to ask themselves, ‘Do we make a deal and get reasonable market value--even though it may not be everything we would want if Junior had three or four years left on his contract--or do we keep him and ride it out, hoping he helps put us over the top?’ It’s harder to trade a player of his magnitude during the season, and I have to believe that if he opens the season with the Mariners, he’ll end it with them. Either way, Kenny is fine with the situation.”

Gillick has stepped into a difficult position as the new Seattle general manager, but he knows the issues and how to play the game. He helped build the Toronto Blue Jay powerhouse of the early ‘90s with a blockbuster trade with the San Diego Padres in which he acquired Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter for Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez. He also helped put together the Baltimore Orioles’ playoff teams of 1996 and ’97.

By keeping Griffey and Rodriguez, he may end up with only draft choices as compensation for two of the game’s best players, but he is not saying he has to make a decision.

Griffey has asked for a trade, but Rodriguez hasn’t, and Gillick said there are no trade talks involving Rodriguez. Scott Boras, Rodriguez’s agent, has said his client would prefer to stay in Seattle for the 2000 season and will not sign with either the Mariners or any team he might be traded to until it is over.

At that point, of course, the 24-year-old shortstop is certain to generate interest from Chavez Ravine to Flushing Meadow. In the meantime, Gillick has re-signed Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner and Jamie Moyer, lured Olerud back to his Seattle roots with a three-year, $20.3-million contract and may be close to signing former Angel left-hander Chuck Finley and former Texas Ranger second baseman Mark McLemore.

His hope is to improve the Mariners enough to influence Rodriguez to stay. That would mean keeping Griffey or getting the players he wants.

Gillick said he would not be surprised if Griffey opened the season with the Mariners, adding, “He will open the season if we don’t get reasonable value for him.”

The other intriguing possibilities at these meetings involve quality players eligible for free agency after the 2000 season and on the block, perhaps, because their clubs are either unwilling or unable to meet their contract demands and are trying to get something more than draft choices as compensation.

Andy Ashby, Dante Bichette, Shawn Green and Juan Gonzalez have already been traded through what has become known as accelerated free agency, and Garret Anderson, Carlos Delgado, Jim Edmonds, Mike Hampton, Mike Mussina, Manny Ramirez and Ismael Valdes--all of whom are also in the 2000 free-agent class--still could be.

Economics rule, and you have to pay to play--as proven by the playoffs and the current pitching market:

* A physically tender David Cone, at 36, gets a one-year, $12-million contract in re-signing with the New York Yankees.

* Jon Lieber and Dave Mlicki, both under .500 for their careers, get three-year contracts of $15 million and $15.5 million from the Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers.

* Representatives for second-tier free-agent pitchers Kenny Rogers, Darren Oliver, Steve Trachsel and Omar Olivares, will be pursuing--and undoubtedly getting--multiyear contracts for $20 million or more during the Anaheim meetings.

Bowden and colleagues don’t have to be told that they would be having a lot more fun at Disneyland.

ANGELS AT HOME: Will this be the year one of the outfielders is traded for a pitcher? Page 5