This Pitch Was Off the Plate

Baseball’s winter meetings ended Tuesday with:

* The Angels still unable to land an experienced, quality pitcher for their shredded rotation. They could still trade Jim Edmonds to the Oakland Athletics for inexpensive and inexperienced prospects, remarkable since it was only two years ago that the Angels rejected the chance to send an Edmonds package to the A’s for Mark McGwire.

* Ken Griffey Jr., still a member of the Seattle Mariners, which pleases neither the player nor his club.

* Almost two full rotations of free-agent pitchers still available and receiving few offers from pitching-hungry clubs wary of the high price tags. The lack of action has some agents wondering if it might not be collusion rather than common sense.

A closer look:

THE FREE-AGENT WALTZ

Alan Meersand said he left the meetings “perplexed, disgusted and concerned.” Meersand represents Steve Trachsel, a pitcher who has thrown 200 or more innings in each of the last four seasons but was a disappointing 8-18 with the disappointing Chicago Cubs in 1999, after having gone 15-8 in ’98.

With an initial price tag of about $20 million for three years but open to alternatives, Meersand said he has received offers and feelers but nothing of market value.

“There’s too many clubs needing pitching and too many serviceable pitchers still available not to be a little skeptical,” Meersand said. “It seems like there’s a united effort to depress the pitching market. I hate to use the C-word and I’m not ready to say that’s what it is, but it has to be in the back of your mind.”

Collusion, of course, is the dirtiest word in baseball.

Some believe the problem is simply a logjam and that once Chuck Finley chooses from among three-year offers from Cleveland, Baltimore, Seattle and Boston, dominoes will fall. Finley was in Cleveland on Tuesday to meet with Indian officials and undergo a physical.

Others say, however, that the escalating prices underscore the reality that only a few clubs can afford to pay big for a second-tier pitcher who would be a No. 3 to 5 in most rotations.

“Let’s face it, I don’t see a Kevin Brown or Randy Johnson out there,” a National League general manager said.

Besides Trachsel and Finley, the available pitchers include Aaron Sele, Kenny Rogers, Juan Guzman, Darren Oliver, Andy Benes, Hideo Nomo and Omar Olivares. The C-word doesn’t refer to Cy.

THE MARINERS’ ALBATROSS

Seattle General Manager Pat Gillick left Anaheim saying he will continue trying to trade Griffey, hoping the center fielder recognizes it’s in everyone’s best interest.

No kidding.

Griffey’s return to a team disenchanted with him, a team he wants to be traded from, would only lead to a distracting and potentially combustible situation. His tenuous relationship with co-star Alex Rodriguez could only make matters worse, and Rodriguez’s own eligibility for free agency after the 2000 season figures to be a distraction in itself.

The Mariners, who went through a similar scenario with Johnson in 1998, should never have let it reach this point, but that’s easier said than done in a situation where the player has the power. Griffey, 10 years in the majors and five with the same team, has veto rights over any trade and exercised them late Monday, blocking a deal with the New York Mets believed to have included outfielder Roger Cedeno and pitchers Armando Benitz and Octavio Dotel.

The Mets were on Griffey’s original approval list, but he narrowed the list to the hometown Cincinnati Reds two weeks ago, putting the squeeze on the Mariners, whose ongoing talks with the Mets angered Griffey to the point that agent Brian Goldberg called it “misleading and game playing.”

The Mariners, having already signed free-agent first baseman John Olerud and, in pursuit of Finley and second baseman Mark McLemore, had hoped to improve the club enough that Rodriguez--with Griffey gone--might be influenced to stay. But they need to trade Griffey to do that.

The question is, who blinks first?

Does Griffey, recognizing how difficult it would be to return, approve a New York trade? Do the Mariners, knowing they will get only draft choices if Griffey and Rodriguez leave as free agents, go back to the Reds and try to cobble a deal that excludes second baseman Pokey Reese?

Stay tuned. The volume on this is just starting to pick up.

THE ANGELS’ (MIS)DIRECTION?

There is no trade deadline attached to the winter meetings. Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman and A’s General Manager Billy Beane are expected to meet in Anaheim today and could complete a deal in which Edmonds would go to Oakland for Brett Laxton and two other prospects.

Laxton, a young right-hander who pitched mainly in triple A last year, isn’t the experienced pitcher the Angels need, which underscores questions about the Angels’ direction and their new general manager.

Does the Angels’ willingness to trade Edmonds, who could put a division rival over the hump, suggest that Disney figures 2000 is a lost cause and is only interested in lowering the payroll to a point where it can start over or sell?

With Ismael Valdes and Rolando Arrojo already traded, and the Mets seemingly reluctant to deal the promising Dotel for Edmonds, did Stoneman put too high a value on the center fielder or is he reluctant to pull the trigger on his first big trade?

There were indications Tuesday that the market for Edmonds may be heating up. The Indians, with Kenny Lofton sidelined for the first half or more of the 2000 season and perhaps on the verge of signing Finley, could be a new entrant. They could part with Jaret Wright or a package of prospects. The Mets, uncertain of the Griffey situation, could rethink their reluctance to trade Dotel.

Stoneman said only that there is a new team involved. He pitched two major league no-hitters and obviously doesn’t want to spin a shutout in this first big assignment as general manager. It’s not clear, however, what kind of signals he is getting from Disney.

*

DODGERS GET RELIEF

The Dodgers acquired Dan Naulty from the New York Yankees, but they won’t get Arthur Rhodes.

Page 5

CENTER STAGE?

Angels’ deal for Edmonds still alive, as Indians join Athletics in pursuit.

Page 5