Top Headliners Are in New York

Plug in Frank and Liza. The theme of the winter meetings that ended Thursday was “New York, New York.” It was a Subway Series just off the Massachusetts Turnpike.

The indomitable Yankees, doing what they do every winter, applied the icing to their previous agreements with Rondell White, Sterling Hitchcock and Steve Karsay by announcing Thursday the anticipated acquisition of Jason Giambi, the premier free agent, for seven years at $120 million. The Mets, escaping some of that Bronx shadow as they are consistently challenged to do, first stole Roberto Alomar, the future Hall of Fame second baseman, in an eight-player trade with the Cleveland Indians, and then completed their Boston bivouac Thursday by signing free-agent outfielder Roger Cedeno to a four-year, $18-million contract and free-agent reliever David Weathers to a three-year, $9.4-million pact.

No “upper management” official interfered with any of these done deals at the 11th hour, as Huey (or was it Louie?) did when Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman attempted to trade Darin Erstad to the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday only to have either Disney chairman Michael Eisner or club President Tony Tavares expand their job descriptions at expense of their GM’s autonomy and kill the deal. It is presumed that new Dodger General Manager Dan Evans didn’t need chairman Bob Daly’s approval when he completed his only trade of the convention Thursday.

In daily media briefings, Evans boasted about all the meetings he was having with other clubs, all the sleep he was losing, but is he bringing back the closer that was his primary objective or did he finally unload Gary Sheffield in that oft-chronicled deal with the Oakland A’s? Neither happened, which is not to say that the trade in which Luke Prokopec and Chad Ricketts were sent to the Toronto Blue Jays for infielder Cesar Izturis and Paul Quantrill didn’t fill some objectives--according to Evans, at least.

Izturis will compete with Alex Cora for the starting shortstop job and brings some needed athleticism to the middle of the infield, the GM said. Quantrill was an all-star reliever last season who helps fill the need of improved bullpen depth (particularly since Weathers was lost to the Mets) and joins Matt Herges in providing two proven set-up men for a mystery closer.

Not bad.

It’s just that the developing Prokopec--one of their few trade possibilities--represents a valuable arm at a time when there is no certainty about the physical status of Kevin Brown and Andy Ashby. And--since the remainder of the rotation has been reduced to Omar Daal, Terry Mulholland and Eric Gagne--the Dodgers seem forced to re-sign Chan Ho Park or compromise their chances in the National League West. Prokopec also was expected to be part of that multi-player trade with the A’s in which Sheffield would have ended up in Oakland, with closer Billy Koch and outfielder Jermaine Dye joining the Dodgers--a little more bang than Izturis and Quantrill.

Where that trade with the A’s stands now isn’t clear. The Dodgers have a problem with Sheffield and know it, even though Evans said Thursday he hasn’t been shopping Sheffield, which seemed highly suspect and disingenuous considering that the Oakland business has been out there for more than a week and Sheffield has been made available in trade talks with several clubs, according to officials of those clubs.

If the Oakland trade is dead, the Dodgers have to give Sheffield away or bring back the time bomb of last spring, a player who has been reminded again that his club isn’t thrilled about retaining him. That’s undoubtedly why Evans tried so hard Thursday to say he would have to be overwhelmed to trade Sheffield, that he is very much a Dodger. In addition, if the A’s deal is dead, or the absence of Prokopec means it has been reduced to a Sheffield for Dye giveaway devoid of Koch (Oakland General Manager Billy Beane clearly has the hammer in all this), then the closer market might be closing on Evans rapidly.

Besides Urgueth Urbina of the Boston Red Sox, it is difficult to find an available, front-line closer apart from Troy Percival of the Angels. But if Eisner or Tavares didn’t allow Erstad to go to the White Sox, they aren’t going to let Percival go to the neighboring Dodgers.

The reality is that Evans could emerge from all this with an Urbina/Dye package, which would be a considerable drop-off from Koch/Dye or even Sheffield/Jeff Shaw. Said Evans: “Trading Prokopec doesn’t preclude us from doing any other deal we have discussed at the meetings.”

Perhaps, but the Angels’ failed attempt to trade Erstad carries serious consequences. Will any team enter serious negotiations with Stoneman knowing he lacks the final vote?

Do the Angels now re-open multiyear contract negotiations with Erstad, whose leverage was significantly improved by the theory, as claimed by the White Sox, that the Angels withdrew from the agreed-to trade because they felt Erstad represented a popular marketing vehicle? How does Stoneman get the pitching help he needs if Disney, attempting to sell, is unwilling to spend, and he can’t trade Erstad or Percival, both in their walk years and eligible for free agency at the end of the 2002 season?

Stoneman sat in his suite Thursday and said he doesn’t believe his role has been diminished. He said the White Sox discussions simply didn’t reach the level of a completed trade and that, in an era of high finance and contract complexities, “I can’t think of a club right now where ownership wouldn’t be involved in the decision-making process. That club just doesn’t exist.”

There is validity to that, but then this was a trade that the White Sox believed was already signed, sealed and in the process of being delivered, and it is difficult to believe that the Angels’ “upper management” wasn’t aware of the discussions as they progressed. It is also difficult to believe that the Angels--from Eisner down--didn’t decide to see what they could get for a player in his walk year once multiyear contract talks with Erstad broke down weeks ago.

As Stoneman packed for his return to Anaheim, there was no question what column the Angels would fall into when the meeting’s winners and losers are determined. Their undoing of a done deal was the most bizarre development of a bizarre week that represented--despite the Giambi signing that was actually announced at Yankee Stadium--a significant departure from the agent-dominated, contract-jolting conventions of recent years.

A combination of contraction, the retrenchment of big spenders such as Toronto and Cleveland, and the reality of baseball’s economics have slowed the market. Among the free agents drawing few offers, and in some cases one or none, are Barry Bonds, Johnny Damon, Juan Gonzalez, Moises Alou, Jason Schmidt, Aaron Sele, Bret Boone and Park.

Of course, business goes on. There is no trade or signing deadline tied to the end of the meetings. We probably haven’t even heard the end of “New York, New York.”