Giants Growing Concerned About Bonds Market

Look, says Brian Sabean, the San Francisco Giants’ general manager, there’s an easy way to cure “all that heartache” that guys such as Gary Sheffield and Frank Thomas seem to have been suffering.

“All they have to do is walk in, tear up their contracts, and they’d clear the way to be traded in a minute,” Sabean said, meaning that by voiding their contracts--the ones they are unhappy with--they would be removing all the financial and other contract impediments for the teams trying to trade them and teams interested in acquiring them.

Of course, with all those built-in guarantees, “Do you really think that’s going to happen?” Sabean asked, knowing the answer.

The Giants have a situation that hasn’t risen to the distracting level of the one involving Sheffield and the Dodgers, but it could. Barry Bonds can become a free agent when the season ends, and Sabean says he won’t consider a new contract until then. He knows it may be an issue as the Giants try to repeat as National League West champions but fears it could be more of an issue if he opens negotiations that go nowhere. He poses another question to which he knows the answer: “Put it this way: I don’t think Barry or his agent [Scott Boras] are going to come in and do a [Mark] McGwire deal, do you?”

McGwire, who would have been eligible for free agency at the end of the 2001 season, recently agreed to a two-year, $30-million extension with the St. Louis Cardinals, well below his market value.

Bonds, 36, is in the final year of a three-year, $22.9-million extension. He receives $10.3 million this year and will have earned $74.45 million in nine years with the Giants. He hit a career-best 49 homers last year, driving in 106 runs.

“We’ve consistently said that we want Barry back, but it’s going to have to happen at the end of the year, when we have a better feel for our financial situation,” Sabean said.

“We also need to get our other people signed for the future, and the last thing we want to do is get in a position like we were in ’96 where we have two great players [Bonds and Matt Williams] pulling down over half the payroll and we have to trade Matt so that we can finish the rest of the club and be where we want to be. We know we run a risk at the end of the year to be subject to the market or the price going up, but that’s the way of the world.”

Bonds now opts for discretion, refusing to discuss his contract. He feels that he was unfairly lumped with Sheffield and Thomas when he reported this spring and said that, because of family considerations, he hoped the Giants would clarify his future as soon as possible. There was no demand to renegotiate, no request for an extension. He was available if the Giants wanted to discuss it, but it’s clear they don’t, which doesn’t entirely surprise him because “if my godfather [Willie Mays] wasn’t allowed to finish his career with the Giants, why should it be any different for me?”

In the way of the world, as Sabean put it, Marvin Benard’s $11.1-million contract kicks in this year, Shawn Estes jumped to $4 million after a 15-6 season and is eligible for arbitration again next winter, and Jeff Kent, the NL’s most valuable player, is in line for a significant raise when he comes up to his walk year in 2002.

None of this would seem a serious obstacle for a team that played to sellout crowds during its initial season in Pacific Bell Park and had revenue of $165 million-- exceeded only by the New York Yankees and Mets--but, Sabean said, “From year to year, we’re at a fixed level with no dramatic increase on the horizon. A lot of that has to do with owning and operating our own park, from the year-to-year debt service [of about $20 million] that has to be paid upfront to the ticket takers and ushers and cleanup crew. You just have a lot more going out than you ordinarily would, and that’s without adding in a $62.5-million payroll.”

The Giants also are at a fixed level because the owners are said to require a profit of at least $1 million a year, which they achieve with a payroll in that $62-million range.

So basically, Sabean said, “You get used to reinventing yourself each year. We’ve had to be more creative, perfect the art of doing the impossible. If we don’t bring a kid or two along each year, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. It can be done, and I’m not complaining about a $62.5-million payroll because, in my mind, that’s enough to win, but it’s difficult to win the way we want to win because you can’t go out in the market and solve your problem overnight by adding that one big spike. We have to do it more methodically, and that’s what was so frustrating last year, winning 97 games and then getting bounced [by the Mets] in the first round of the playoffs.”

The Giants did make an important move over the winter by retaining Manager Dusty Baker for two years at $5.3 million. However, financial considerations prompted them to trade third baseman Bill Mueller, who was arbitration eligible, and to let Ellis Burks, who hit .344, drove in 96 runs and was a clubhouse force, offsetting the distant relationship between Bonds and Kent, join the Cleveland Indians as a free agent.

In reinventing the 2001 Giants, Sabean has to hope that two younger players, third baseman Pedro Felix and right fielder Armando Rios, can help fill the voids at those two positions. He otherwise provided Baker with some older mirrors, acquiring Eric Davis, 38, Shawon Dunston, 38, and Tim Worrell, 33. Seventeen of the players projected for opening day are 30 or over.

“As important as it is to bring along a younger player or two each year, it’s more and more difficult to just go with kids and try to rebuild long term in this division,” Sabean said, referring to the high cost of competing in the NL West.

“It’s just too difficult to go with kids and fill the ballpark and pay the bills. I don’t know who would understand us being in a rebuilding phase in any year. I mean, people talk about the veteran players we’ve taken on, but there isn’t one starter we’re asking to play more than they have for most of their careers.”

Besides, he said, the Giants are young where they need to be, with a 30-and-under group of starting pitchers that figures to keep the team competitive again and is supported by a deep and experienced bullpen. Can they win 97 again?

“I think there’s too much parity in the division, and with the new schedule [in which teams play more intradivision games], I think it will be difficult to win 97 or achieve a high winning percentage in the division,” Sabean said.

“Last year, we were around .500 in the division but beat up on the other teams. If we can keep our head above water in the division, we have a fighting chance to repeat, but we’ll obviously face some formidable pitching staffs in the division. There are going to be a lot of close games, a lot of one-run games, which is one of the reasons I focused on keeping our starting staff together with a chance to get better.

“Barring injuries, this could be the year we look up in September and three or four teams are knocking on the door. That hasn’t happened since ‘97, when we went tooth and nail with the Dodgers.”

It could also be the year when distraction, dissension and depletion prove decisive in the West.

WORTH NOTING

* In rejecting the Toronto Blue Jays’ claim that Mike Sirotka was damaged goods when the Chicago White Sox traded him for David Wells, Commissioner Bud Selig said the baseball rule of caveat emptor--let the buyer beware-- applied.

However, that implies that the Blue Jays had unlimited avenues to check out Sirotka before the trade and ignores the element of trust. It is hard to believe the White Sox didn’t know Sirotka had a potentially serious shoulder injury, and as Toronto GM Gord Ash said, while not specifically naming rookie White Sox GM Kenny Williams, “To me, the most important component in all of this is trust and integrity and the code of honor. If we ever get into a situation where none of us can trust our partners in this game, then we’re going to have mass chaos.”

* Former Dodger Bob Welch, the new Arizona Diamondback pitching coach, has been working with Curt Schilling on an overhand curve that, coupled with the mid-90s fastball he has displayed this spring, has Manager Bob Brenly convinced.

“If he continues to throw this way, he’ll probably win 25 games,” Brenly said.

* Critics of Bill Mazeroski’s selection to the Hall of Fame point to his .260 average, as if to suggest that should nullify his defense or that defense isn’t as important. The same critics, however, will probably support Ozzie Smith.

Mazeroski won eight Gold Gloves and holds major league records for most seasons leading a league in assists and double plays, most double plays in a season and most double plays in a career. Total Baseball, the official encyclopedia, ranks him as the best defensive second baseman in history.

Said Maz, “Maybe my election will bring more attention to defense and how important it is.”