Ever the good ambassador, Sammy Sosa makes time in the winter to travel the world selling a variety of products -- himself, the sport of baseball and, during a recent visit to England, even the game of cricket. He also used that stop in the U.K. to try to breath life into his contract negotiations with the Cubs.
"I think Chicago is going to come through," Sosa said last week. "I think it's going to happen. ... Hopefully I'll go to the Hall of Fame with that Chicago Cubs hat."
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| 2000 SEASON STATISTICS |
| HR |
RBI |
R |
AVG |
OBP |
SLG |
| 50 |
138 |
106 |
.320 |
.406 |
.634 |
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If you listen to Sosa long enough, if you let his wide smile strip you of your perspective, you'll believe anything. But the sun isn't going to rise in the west. And the underachieving Cubs aren't suddenly going to bind themselves to their 33-year-old centerpiece until he has turned 40. Not with Sosa and his agent, Adam Katz, looking for a seven-figure contract.
The reality is that the window for a contract extension has probably passed. Andy MacPhail, the Cubs' president who stepped down the corporate ladder when general manager Ed Lynch resigned last July, has begun a deadly serious pursuit of Mike Hampton. He plans to offer Hampton the scores of millions that Sosa recently rejected -- believed to be $60-64 million over four years.
With as many as 10 teams in the Hampton chase, including deep-pocketed franchises like Atlanta, Colorado, Texas and the New York Mets, MacPhail isn't shopping for a bargain. He is prepared to extend himself farther for Hampton than he did Sosa, perhaps all the way to the land of Kevin Brown money.
After all, Hampton is 28 years old and has gone 63-31 with a 3.30 ERA over the last four years. He pitched in the playoffs in each of those years with the Mets and Astros. The Cubs don't expect to instantly become contenders, but are selling Hampton on the chance to pitch in a rotation with Kerry Wood and Jon Lieber and help prospects like Corey Patterson, Hee Seop Choi, Bobby Hill and Ben Christensen transform the organization into a winner with shelf life.
"I'm shooting pretty high," MacPhail said. "To get a young, quality left-hander who we think can be a building block, an asset to us for years to come."
Sosa, of course, has been the organization's greatest asset for years. There's no indication he couldn't remain that for years to come, especially if he began a more traditionally conditioning regime. Sosa, bulked up and often as much as 20 pounds overweight, has hit .305 with a ridiculous 179 home runs and 437 RBI over the last three years.
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If Sosa gives his blessing -- and he might since Rangers owner Tom Hicks is interested in locking up a franchise player long-term -- a Cubs-Rangers deal could be done quickly. The teams match up well. The Rangers could send Gabe Kapler, one or two relief arms and prospects to Chicago. ” |
He got off to a slow start last season and then slumped badly in June when the Yankees approached the Cubs about a possible trade. But in the second half -- long after the team had played its way out of possible playoff contention -- Sosa provided a 70-game demonstration of what the Cubs will miss if they let him go elsewhere.
Sosa hit .338 with 27 homers and 64 RBI, winning his first home run crown and raising his batting average to a career-best .320 and his combined on-base + slugging percentage was higher in 2000 than in his 66-homer year of 1998. He hit 50 homers, joining Mark McGwire as the only man to ever hit 50 in three consecutive seasons. He even managed not to lead the National League in strikeouts, ending a three-year reign.
While Sosa is only being rational when he repeats endlessly his desire to spend the rest of his career in Chicago -- who wouldn't want the unconditional love he gets from the guys in the right-field bleachers at Wrigley Field? -- Sosa has done nothing to evidence that wish.
There's a widely believed myth that Sosa's contract expires after next season. In fact, the deal that Sosa signed midway through the '97 season includes a mutual option that would pay Sammy $12 million in 2002. It's almost identical to a clause that McGwire has in his current deal with St. Louis.
But while McGwire quietly exercised that 2001 mutual option in September 1999, taking himself off this winter's free-agent market, Sosa acts as if he has no control over his fate. And when a reporter asked Katz about Sosa's willingness to compromise with the Cubs, as Ken Griffey Jr. did with Cincinnati, the agent was visibly perturbed. "You've got to be kidding me with that," Katz barked at the reporter. "Next ..."
While the talks between MacPhail and Katz have been amiable, that exchange last June foretold their unproductive nature. Katz describes them as "in a stall," but it appears they have broken off completely while MacPhail considers other ways to spend $15 million a year.
"We were working on it," Katz said. "We've kind of run out of steam. Andy is pretty dug in with his position and we're pretty dug in with our position."
Sosa's deterioration as a fielder, as well as the recent trend to put on weight, leaves MacPhail unwilling to give Sosa the six- or seven-year deal he has been lobbying for since the middle of the 1999 season. With Sosa unwilling to accept fewer years and fewer millions than MacPhail is offering, both the Cubs and Sosa have a decision to make about the 2001 season.
MacPhail insists he is planning to have Sosa in right field all year, even if the Cubs get only two high draft picks when he leaves as a free agent next winter. "The specter of free agency is not all-consuming with me," MacPhail said. "I have other needs to fill. I don't see this as anything requiring immediate attention in any sense."
A trade is possible, either before the season or at midseason. The Rangers and Rockies have made preliminary inquiries with the Cubs. But as a 10-and-5 player, Sosa must approve all deals. Katz has indicated Sosa will accept a deal only "under the right circumstances," which is believed to be one that includes the massive contract he has not gotten from the Cubs.
But that could change as Sosa absorbs the reality of a lame duck season with a second-division team. The grass may look greener elsewhere, even if he's only passing time before entering the free-agent market.
Katz doesn't rule out Sosa eventually requesting a trade. "Perhaps, perhaps not," Katz said. "Right now [a trade request] is not on our screen."
By picking up Matt Stairs from Oakland last week, MacPhail put himself in a better position to trade Sosa. But with Sosa, along with a healthy Wood and newcomers Rondell White, Bill Mueller and Stairs, the Cubs should be in position to make a run at a .500 next year. That would be a step in the right direction -- and it could turn into a leap if MacPhail is successful in pursuing free agents like Hampton, Turk Wendell and Tom Gordon.
The Rangers, who traded a 20-year-old Sosa to the White Sox in 1989, are pursuing Alex Rodriguez and Hampton. But there are indications that they will make a strong push for Sosa if they fall out of those auctions. Texas GM Doug Melvin is also talking to agent Scott Boras about re-signing Juan Gonzalez, who he traded to Detroit last winter, but Sosa would bring far more marquee value and reliable run production than the fragile Gonzalez.
If Sosa gives his blessing -- and he might since Rangers owner Tom Hicks is interested in locking up a franchise player long-term -- a Cubs-Rangers deal could be done quickly. The teams match up well. The Rangers could send Gabe Kapler, one or two relief arms (from a group including Tim Crabtree, Jeff Zimmerman, Francisco Cordero, Matt Perisho and Peter Munro) and prospects to Chicago.
While the Cubs risk a drop in popularity by trading Sosa, MacPhail has to consider recent trends. The Oakland Athletics dealt McGwire in 1997 and won the 2000 AL West title with a team built around 25-and-under stars. Seattle traded Griffey to Cincinnati last spring and went to the playoffs with a balanced team that featured six players either acquired for Griffey or paid for by the financial surplus from his departure.
"You're in last place," said Oakland GM Billy Beane. "Somebody says, 'You have to have this guy.' ... Well, you're last. There's obviously no part of the equation that has to be maintained. Whatever all the parts add up to, it's not working."
Sosa has been good business for the Cubs, not good baseball. MacPhail is moving on.
Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a web site at www.chicagosports.com.
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