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| Friday, July 19 Updated: July 22, 9:12 AM ET Everyone has won with recent Yankee deals By Jayson Stark ESPN.com |
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If it seemed like fingers all across America were pointing directly at The Bronx last week, you weren't dreaming. When in doubt, baseball always blames it on the Yankees. In Cleveland, Larry Dolan said baseball's economic problems are all George Steinbrenner's fault. In Milwaukee, Bud Selig said on one hand that he is "not going to be critical of the Yankees." But on the other hand, in literally his next breath, he said the Yankees' recent deals for Raul Mondesi and Jeff Weaver were "a dramatic manifestation" of the problems with the current system. Now we're not going to dispute that maybe the commish is onto something there. But if he is, there's a logical next question: Why didn't he block that Mondesi deal if he felt it was such a problem? He could have. Easily. Because the Yankees were essentially buying Mondesi's contract (for the $5.5 million he still had coming this year, $7 million of the $13 million he'll make next year and a marginal prospect), the amount of money being exchanged dumped the entire affair in Selig's lap. "Bud could have stopped it," said one baseball official with knowledge of the process. "He had to approve it. He was involved every step of the way." So why didn't he stop it? Interesting question. Here is how the commish answered it at his Town Hall Meeting last week: "The Yankees properly say that this is the system, they are playing under that system," Selig said. "And while we've had cash requirements, I have waived a lot of them over the last four or five years using my own judgment and instincts, because I have to consider not only the Yankees but the team they are making the trade with -- and other teams." In other words, the Blue Jays needed the money. They got a $12.5-million debt off their books, and they were happy to do it. So this was a transaction that worked for all concerned. The Yankees got a player that upgraded their weakest position. The Blue Jays dumped a contract. And everybody else got what they love most -- a new opportunity to blame the Yankees for ruining the sport.
Miscellaneous Rumblings
But one of the big hang-ups has been that the Phillies are believed to be asking most of those clubs for their own starting third baseman in return -- i.e., Placido Polanco from the Cardinals, Adrian Beltre from the Dodgers, Aaron Boone from the Reds, Shea Hillenbrand from the Red Sox, Edgardo Alfonzo from the Mets. That's a price virtually all of those teams feel they can't pay, at least for now. Since Rolen can be a free agent, there's no assurance they can hang onto him and, for the clubs in the race, it's tough to mess with a winning nucleus and positive chemistry. The one exception could be the Cardinals, who would feel reasonably sure they could get Rolen signed. But the Cardinals are committed to dealing for pitching first. And their ability to make a second major deal will depend on what pitcher they trade for, how much salary they take on and what trading chips they have left following that deal. They've been in on almost every prominent name: Al Leiter, Mike Hampton, Chuck Finley, Paul Byrd, Jeff Suppan, Kenny Rogers, Brian Moehler, Robert Person, etc. "They'd prefer to deal for a second-tier guy," said one club official who has been in contact with the Cardinals. "If they took on a big-money guy, like a Hampton or a Leiter, they couldn't do a deal for a Rolen, too. They can't take both." In the meantime, the Phillies have told teams they're prepared to keep Rolen all year if they can't get something substantial back. And since they have no one in the system who could play third base every day for the final two months, there's every indication they're not bluffing. But that would mean letting Rolen walk in the fall and getting zippo back. So obviously, this will remain baseball's most fascinating soap opera till the day it ends.
In the end, though, that trade and the Bartolo Colon deal before it proved to any doubters that, whether the Expos wind up making the playoffs or not, Omar Minaya is already one of the most creative GMs in the business. Minaya's assistant, longtime baseball executive Tony Siegle, told Rumblings this week that the Floyd trade "might have been the hardest deal I've ever been involved in putting together, between all the administrative stuff, all the people involved, the dollars, the logistics and players all over the place." But Minaya and Siegle refused to let that deal collapse, even though last-minute hang-ups over Graeme Lloyd's no-trade and a small increase in the Reds' payroll nearly torpedoed it again after the GMs had signed off on it.
When Loria visited the clubhouse this week during a series in New York, sources say his players wouldn't even look at him. For all that talk that the Marlins "aren't giving up," the Floyd deal left them with one left-handed-hitting position player on the entire roster (Andy Fox), plus two switch-hitters (Luis Castillo, Tim Raines). They may not see another left-handed set-up man the rest of the season.
If any of those teams think bankruptcy might be a good way to get lease holders and other obstacles off their backs, however, one sports attorney with experience in franchise bankruptcies says they ought to reconsider. "It's true Chapter 11 can void a lease," the attorney said. "But if you've got $250 million invested in your franchise, the chances of coming out of Chapter 11 with anything close to that -- or anything worthwhile -- are not good. You just have to look at that Pittsburgh Penguins case. All their previous equity holders got wiped out."
As a former MVP voter here at Rumblings Central, the first question I asked about any player's season was: What was the context this guy's numbers were compiled in? If he put up those numbers for a team that was never in the race at any point, it was hard to evaluate them as anything more than pretty stats, period. But MVP doesn't mean "best player" or "prettiest stats." It means "most valuable." And to be "most valuable," you have to contribute to something meaningful around you. Alfonso Soriano has done that. Ichiro has done that. Torii Hunter and Nomar Garciaparra have done that. Alex Rodriguez leads the league in home runs. But his team is 8-17 in games in which he's homered. And great as A-Rod is, that's not an MVP number.
"How far they go will depend on the matchups," says one scout. "But I'll tell you what I really like about this team: I watched them take batting practice, and every one of their left-handed hitters -- Jacque Jones, (Doug) Mientkiewicz, (A.J.) Pierzynski -- went the other way -- in BP. And they took the same approach in the game. Some teams go through the motions in BP. These guys take it like guys used to in the old days. They've got a great mentality. They're one of the few teams left where the inmates haven't overrun the asylum." Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com. |
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