PAY BALL!

So the Dodgers will pay two players--Kevin Brown and Shawn Green--$29 million in average annual salary for the next six years, which is more than the 1999 payrolls of the Chicago White Sox, Florida Marlins, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates.

This combination of a $105-million Brown contract with an $84-million Green contract--baseball’s top two based on average value--was enough to make a former major league owner see red.

“You can’t build enough luxury suites, put up enough ad signs or raise tickets high enough or often enough to justify it, let alone make sense of it,” he said.

Maybe not, but what’s new?

Baseball’s economics have never made much sense, and the ongoing excesses seem to carry no correlation between any statistical or societal reality.

Consider Monday’s trade:

* Chairman Robert Daly insisted the Dodgers had been prepared to walk away from the Green contract negotiations if they failed to make economic sense (there’s that word again), but they walked away only after making the Toronto outfielder, with only two big years to his credit, baseball’s highest salaried position player. His and Brown’s contracts are more than Fox had offered Mike Piazza, once considered their franchise player.

* The Blue Jays, unwilling to meet Green’s contract requirements, agreed to pay Raul Mondesi $44.5 million for four years, rewarding a player who had demanded to be traded and was considered a disruptive influence in Los Angeles by guaranteeing the $24 million in his two option years--a payoff for Mondesi waving his trade rights as a player traded with a multiyear contract.

Green, of course, was eligible for free agency after the 2000 season and the Blue Jays were determined to get something more than draft choices in return after he rejected their five-year, $48-million offer. They have been left in a similar bind by Carlos Delgado, who led the team in home runs with 44 and runs batted in with 144.

General Manager Gord Ash, having been unable to reach a contract agreement with Delgado, who is also eligible for free agency after the 2000 season, is trying to trade him in another example of what is becoming known as advanced free agency.

The 1999 free-agent class--featuring primarily John Olerud, Greg Vaughn, David Cone and Chuck Finley--would not set the market on fire, but it has been enhanced by the availability of several premier players from the free-agent class of 2000, maybe the best ever.

Juan Gonzalez, Dante Bichette and Green--all members of that class--have already been traded by clubs either disinterested in retaining them a year from now or certain they would be unable to financially.

Ken Griffey Jr., another member of that class, will be traded by the Seattle Mariners soon, and Andy Ashby, Jim Edmonds, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte and Manny Ramirez are others who may be moved a year ahead of their free-agent eligibility.

Said Jeff Moorad, who represented both Green and Mondesi: “It only makes sense for teams to explore their options at an earlier stage--whether it’s an acquiring team looking to preempt the market or a team unable to sign a potential free agent of their own.”

Commissioner Bud Selig, who met with the general managers Monday, said later that he was not thrilled by the process of advanced free agency “but it is what it is and not a surprising development in relation to the system. I mean, I may be surprised at the number, but other than that I’m not really surprised given what has happened to a lot of clubs over the years in losing players to free agency and not getting anything in return. This is just a logical development that you could see coming.”

While not a new development, the scope of it this winter will further jolt the salary structure. Green and the Dodgers have already seen to that, but the record $16 million he is guaranteed in the fifth and sixth years is only a start. Griffey will top that when he signs with his new team, and Alex Rodriguez, who is also eligible for free agency after the 2000 season, figures ultimately to top Griffey.

Agent Scott Boras, who represents Rodriguez, said Tuesday that Green’s contract was “very reflective of his age, accomplishments and position in the market,” but that it definitely figures to be surpassed by the “true icon tier” of Griffey and Rodriguez--both of whom already have been offered more than Brown’s record $105 million by the Mariners.

How much higher can a market already characterized by the disparity in payroll and revenue go? How long before the half-dozen or so clubs that can afford to trade for and/or sign the rich and famous run out of job openings? Will the advanced free agents of 1999 destroy the market for the rest of their 2000 class, which includes Craig Biggio, Charles Johnson, Chipper Jones, Barry Larkin, Robb Nen, Darren Dreifort and Ismael Valdes?

Boras shook his head and said: “How many players in each fifth-year class [it takes six to be a first-time free agent] have that kind of [salary and market-altering] leverage? Maybe two or three at most.”

Said Moorad: “Clubs will always have an appetite for the superstar or impact player. The question is, how many of those players can any one club afford?”

The Dodgers now have three in Brown, Green and Gary Sheffield, who is guaranteed $11 million factoring in the $5 million he received to waive a no-trade clause when obtained by the Dodgers.

Boras and Moorad, among other agents, may describe the new escalation as a simple matter of market value, may point out how the A’s and Reds found a way to be competitive with their small payrolls, but at the general manager meetings, where both the have and have-nots are paying about $400 a night for hotel suites, the signing of Green parlayed to the contracts expected to follow have expanded familiar concerns about the familiar disparities.

Detroit General Manager Randy Smith, who traded for Gonzalez in the hope that increased revenue from a new ballpark will help him retain the marquee player that his Tigers required moving into their new facility, referred to the competitive damage created by big market domination when he said that “even the Harlem Globetrotters would find it hard selling 162 games a year.”

Perhaps, but every time the financial ball is in the owners’ court they seem to turn it right over to the players.

With no disrespect, Shawn Green is the latest example, but not the last.

* RANDY HARVEY

It appears Kevin Malone and Davey Johnson made the right decision in not suspending Raul Mondesi. Page 2

* BIG DEAL ALMOST WASN’T

The Dodgers wanted to acquire Shawn Green, but the trade came very close to being a non-event. Page 7

* BOGGS TO QUIT?

Wade Boggs, who three months ago joined the 3,000-hit club, apparently is set to retire. Page 7

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

In The Money

This season’s eight playoff teams were among the top 10 spenders.

Highest team payrolls for 1999*

(Playoff teams highlighted)

1. N.Y. Yankees: $91,990,955

2. Texas: 80,801,598

3. Atlanta: 79,256,599

4. Dodgers: 76,607,247

5. Baltimore: 75,443,363

6. Cleveland: 73,531,692

7. Boston: 72,330,656

8. N.Y. Mets: 71,510,523

9. Arizona: 70,046,818

10. Houston: 56,389,000

*Totals include termination pay, prorated shares of signing bonuses and earned incentive bonuses (for 1999 only performance bonuses are included).

Team payrolls on the rise

(In billions of dollars)

1995: $.93

1999: $1.46

Associated Press

1999 Payrolls

Baseball payrolls, as determined by the commissioner’s office.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Team: Total Payroll

New York: $91,990,955

Texas: 80,801,598

Baltimore: 75,443,363

Cleveland: 73,531,692

Boston: 72,330,656

Angels: 51,340,297

Toronto: 48,847,300

Seattle: 45,351,254

Tampa Bay: 37,860,451

Detroit: 36,954,666

Oakland: 25,208,858

Chicago: 24,535,000

Kansas City: 16,557,000

Minnesota: 15,845,000

*

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Team: Total Payroll

Atlanta: $79,256,599

Dodgers: 76,607,247

New York: 71,510,523

Arizona: 70,046,818

Houston: 56,389,000

Chicago: 55,419,648

Colorado: 54,367,504

San Diego: 46,507,179

St. Louis: 46,337,129

San Francisco: 45,991,934

Milwaukee: 42,976,575

Cincinnati: 38,031,285

Philadelphia: 30,441,500

Pittsburgh: 23,682,420

Montreal: 15,015,250

Florida: 14,650,000

Total: 1,463,828,701