Baseball in Big D, Meaning Dollars

By ROSS NEWHAN

Dec. 8, 2000 12 AM PT

DALLAS —

So, Commissioner Bud Selig goes to Washington and tells a Congressional committee that baseball’s economic system needs to be changed and will be changed.

War drums in preparation for another industry-numbing work stoppage after the 2001 season?

Perhaps, but meantime:

Many of Selig’s constituents might continue to wink at ongoing disparities while providing the usual display of holiday generosity during the annual spending spree known as the winter meetings, beginning here today.

Of course, what some view as another apocalyptic pattern has already been set.

* The New York Yankees established a scale for the younger and still available Mike Hampton by signing Mike Mussina for $88.5 million.

* The Colorado Rockies signed Denny Neagle for five years at a $10.3-million average, inflating the second-tier starter market for Andy Ashby, who got $22.5 million from the Dodgers; Rick Reed, who received $21.75 million from the New York Mets; and Darren Dreifort, who is now likely to receive the $50 million-plus he wants from either the Dodgers or Rockies.

* The Dodgers, in turn, helped raise the relief bar by signing nomadic and injury-prone Mike Fetters for two years at $4.25 million, leading to the 1) Philadelphia Phillies giving journeymen Jose Mesa and Rheal Cormier $15.55 million, 2) the Mets retaining John Franco and Turk Wendell for $19.9 million, and 3) the Seattle Mariners signing Jeff Nelson for $10.5 million.

* The Mariners also invested about $28 million in Japanese batting champion Ichiro Suzuki, and Ellis Burks took his troubled knees to Cleveland for $21 million.

Now?

Well, some of the biggest expenditures are still to come, headed by the eventual signing of Alex Rod riguez, possibly in the next four or five days.

“I can’t tell you the exact structure of the contract, but I think we’ll have some solid definition during the meetings, and there’s a real chance that [a deal] could be resolved,” agent Scott Boras said.

Given Boras’ penchant for making a splash, as he did with the $105-million signing of Kevin Brown by the Dodgers at the 1998 Nashville meetings, the agent is likely to press for an agreement here.

The problem is, with the early withdrawal of the Mets--and the inability of most clubs to pay perhaps $20 million a year or more, with precedent-setting escalator clauses at three-year intervals ensuring Rodriguez’s status as the top-paid player, Boras has been dealing with a limited market. (He insists that eight teams have shown interest.)

In reality, the Mariners, with whom Boras and Rodriguez met Thursday in Miami, retain a solid chance of re-signing the 25-year-old shortstop. The only other serious bidders seem to be the Rockies, Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves--with the Chicago White Sox on the fringe and involved only if convinced they wouldn’t be used in a bidding war and can restrict the average value to less than $20 million.

Should the Rockies or Braves sign Hampton, who has narrowed his choices to the Rockies, Braves, Mets, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, they would probably drop out of the Rodriguez hunt. President Stan Kasten has said the Braves will not push their payroll beyond $90 million, apparently meaning it would be either Rodriguez or Hampton, not both.

One certainty is that neither the Dodgers nor Angels is involved, or apparently will be. The Angels are a slow-moving mystery in their search for a shortstop and pitching and the Dodgers are focusing on Dreifort and catcher Charles Johnson.

Another certainty is that Rodriguez, arguably baseball’s best player and a legitimate leader and marketing tool, won’t settle for less--and expects considerably more--than the record $17-million average that one-dimensional Carlos Delgado recently received in his $68-million extension with the Toronto Blue Jays.

It is also likely that with the free- agent pitching market basically reduced to Hampton at the top, Kevin Appier in the second tier, and Dreifort in between, the industry focus will begin to shift to a quality lineup of free-agent position players, besides Rodriguez and Johnson.

Among them: Manny Ramirez, Juan Gonzalez, Alex Gonzalez, Jeffrey Hammonds, David Segui, Todd Hundley, Mike Bordick, Bret Boone, Mark Grace and Rico Brogna.

Ramirez, of course, is a one-dimensional hitting machine (like Delgado) who rejected a $17-million average in a $119-million offer to return to the Indians. He has since encountered an even smaller market than Rodriguez and may have to reconsider Cleveland at less than originally offered, although he is being vigorously pursued by the Boston Red Sox, who have come up empty in their pitching pursuits, and could also be a fallback possibility for either the Mariners or Rangers if they don’t get Rodriguez.

People with no understanding of the market have raised the specter of collusion in response to the comparative lack of action on the position players, but that ignores the dollars being spent on pitching when demand continues to outweigh the supply.

“More clubs need pitching and are willing to spend for pitching, and that’s why it’s the priority,” Met General Manager Steve Phillips said.

“In our case, we ended the season with five free agents on a pennant winning staff. We’ve re-signed three [Reed, Franco and Wendell], but are still in that market.”

The free-agent logjam has also put a lid on trades. That could change during the meetings, although there is no deadline, nothing magical about this gabfest, Phillips said.

“It’s just when you sit down face to face with another general manager, things can happen more easily than when you’re dealing by phone. We may see some trades, but my sense is that most clubs are thinking of trades as a fallback position if they can’t fill their needs in free agency. I mean, clubs that can afford it would rather sign a player than trade for one because you only lose draft choices rather than possibly losing a core player in trade.”

Some clubs, of course, won’t bring a checkbook here. It goes back to what Selig considers the loss of hope and faith for too many franchises. The commissioner, by the time the accounting is done here, could have additional evidence in his desire to change the system and establish a more meaningful deterrent to the ongoing salary growth.

On the other hand, many observers may view the madcap spending as a sure measure of prosperity, a message of happy holidays in more ways than one.

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