| | This whole Junior Griffey thing is whacked out right now. He's called Seattle columnists and friends stating that he didn't really demand to be traded, and that he's being run out of town. Now, that's not entirely true; his agent, Brian Goldberg, helped prepare the club statement, and Griffey supposedly did tell new owner Howard Lincoln that even if Seattle won the World Series next season, he would not re-sign.
So what else could the Mariners do but try to get 70 cents on the dollar for him?
But Griffey doesn't want to be hated in Seattle, and he is reminding everyone he has the power here. He can veto any trade, and now that the Braves have made it clear that they are not in the sweepstakes, his choices are limited. The Mets and Reds are interested. Otherwise, there are rumors that pop up here or there, with the Mets lying in the weeds plotting an interesting package with Octavio Dotel and possibly Edgardo Alfonzo.
"What people are realizing is that it's all fine and good to talk about getting one of these guys who is a free agent at the end of next season," says one GM. "But give up four players, then not know if you can sign him?" The Tigers did it with Juan Gonzalez. The Shawn Green deal was different, because both players were right fielders, were only $3.5 million apart in salary, and Green wanted to sign.
But while the Indians wanted Andy Ashby, they didn't want to trade four players and have him either walk or jack his price up to the $10 million-per-year range. So Tuesday night they shifted to Sterling Hitchcock, and Padres officials thought they had a shot at Richie Sexson and Jaret Wright. The Padres ended up trading Ashby to the Phillies.
Toronto is pushing hard to trade David Wells, although they may back off now that Pat Hentgen has been traded. And Carlos Delgado is available. One Jays official told a Yankee official that they were close with the Mets on Wells and Delgado, but the Yankees did not bite, knowing the Mets still haven't given up on John Olerud and don't have enough to trade for both.
The Yankees can have Wells back, but would have to include young first baseman Nick Johnson, which they will not do right now. Instead, they may send Ramiro Mendoza and Chad Curtis to Pittsburgh for Jason Schmidt, then try to get the Cubs to take Hideki Irabu for a relief pitcher. The Yanks want lefty Felix Heredia.
The Jays say Tampa Bay is big on Delgado, but the Devil Rays already have Fred McGriff and Jose Canseco. Toronto wants Roberto Hernandez and Rolando Arrojo, then would shop Hernandez
Look for the Braves to trade for Toronto shortstop Alex Gonzalez in the spring, when they know he's healthy. As for Atlanta, they aren't worried about Bret Boone's threat to demand a trade if they don't re-work his contract. They plan to trade him, anyway.
With bad health news on Bret Saberhagen and Tom Gordon, Boston is looking for pitching. One possibility -- White Sox right-hander James Baldwin, with Chicago asking for shortstop Adam Everett. Or Everett to the Dodgers for Ismael Valdes.
The Rockies have got the wheels rolling on sending Darryl Kile to the Cardinals, along with Dave Veres, for four pitchers: Jose Jimenez, Manny Aybar, Rich Croushore and lefty Lance Painter.
Agent Tony Attanasio is handling Japanese reliever Kazuhiro Sasaki, regarded as the Bruce Sutter of Japan. The price tag reportedly is Trevor Hoffman money ($8 million per year), and Attanasio says that the Mariners, Mets and Yankees are among the early favorites. Sasaki had chips taken out of his elbow last summer and only pitched 23 1/3 innings, but in his previous two seasons he had 177 strikeouts in 116 innings with an 0.87 ERA.
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