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Rodriguez puzzled Shortstop says he didn't make any contract demands
Alex Rodriguez is still confused as to why the Mets would suddenly drop their pursuit of him and, worse, publicly question whether he puts himself above his team. But this much he is sure of: "The demands [Mets general manager] Steve Phillips spoke about never came from me and never came from Scott," Rodriguez said, referring to his agent, Scott Boras, in an exclusive interview with CNNSI.com. "They never came from any party connected to me. I don't know why people would think I demanded those things. I'd rather not say much about it because I think the course of negotiations should be private. But I can tell you this in all honesty: I never asked for those things. That's not me." Three days into the free-agent period, Phillips announced that New York no longer had interest in signing Rodriguez because he thought the player would create a "24-and-one" culture on his team with what Phillips perceived as demands for unreasonable and preferential treatment. Phillips never met face-to-face with Rodriguez before pulling out. Phillips said Rodriguez wanted, among other things, an office at Shea Stadium, four club employees to handle his marketing interests, more billboards in New York than any Yankees or Mets player, a concession tent at spring training, luxury suites at home and on the road and access to a private jet. "Anybody who knows me knows that's not what I'm about," said Rodriguez. "I've always put winning above everything else. I've never asked to be treated any differently, whether I was making $1 million, $2 million, $3 million, $4 million, whatever. Why would I need to change all of a sudden? Why, just because I'd be getting $18 million to $22 million, or whatever, would I become a bad guy?" Rodriguez has played six years in the major leagues without prompting any questions about his integrity or motivation. He has been well respected in the Seattle clubhouse for his work ethic and team play. Mariners manager Lou Piniella has credited Rodriguez with emerging as a strong team leader, especially after the departure of Ken Griffey Jr. prior to last season. It was Rodriguez who gave the Mariners' their rally cry, printing T-shirts in spring training that read, "We are on a mission, sir!" -- a takeoff on the motivational message his personal trainer had used during the offseason. Seattle players wore the shirts throughout the season. The Mariners went on to win the AL wild card and advanced to the ALCS, losing to the Yankees in six games. Why would the Mets pull out so abruptly and so publicly? One theory holds that Phillips intends to get back into negotiations later in the game, hoping that by then the market will have cooled somewhat. But according to one agent not involved in the Rodriguez talks: "The risk you run with that tactic is you totally turn off the player. I can tell you whatever concerns the Mets had are of absolutely no concern to other teams." New York's retreat has buoyed the chances of other organizations to land the greatest free agent ever to hit the market. The most aggressive teams have been the Braves, Dodgers, Mariners, Rangers, Rockies and White Sox. Texas became a surprise player in recent days when general manager Doug Melvin telephoned his shortstop, Royce Clayton, to tell him the club will pursue A-Rod and, if it is successful, would work with Clayton to trade him to a contender. It was a classy move on the Rangers' part to inform Clayton about their plans rather than have a guy who's been a loyal team player read about them in newspapers. After one miserable year of retrenching his payroll, Rangers owner Tom Hicks is now ready to blow it open to get Rodriguez. Hicks also has given Melvin the green light to acquire and sign Sammy Sosa if a deal cannot be worked out for A-Rod. The Dodgers were tentatively scheduled to meet with Rodriguez last Friday in Los Angeles, but those plans were postponed because of mutual scheduling conflicts. That meeting now is likely to take place after Thanksgiving.
The long view of shortstopsBoras did an expert job putting together that famous blue-satin binder dubbed Alex Rodriguez, Historical Performance, which he presented to teams interested in A-Rod. The presentation is thorough and impressive. It also happens to do a pretty good job of selling Nomar Garciaparra. Not that the Red Sox didn't know they had a bargain with Garciaparra at about $6 million per year. Still, Boras' binder can make Boston feel even better. Based on Boras' projections, Garciaparra at age 40 will have 513 home runs and a lifetime .336 batting average. Only two hitters in the history of the game retired with more than 500 home runs and at least a .330 batting average: a couple of guys named Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Of course, Boras expects A-Rod to make it a foursome. Boras' projected hit counts for the three shortstops at age 40 have Rodriguez with 3,916, Derek Jeter with 3,797 and Garciaparra with 3,581. That would leave them at third, fourth and seventh, respectively, on the all-time hits list. Of course, such long-term projections typically offer more in the way of amusement than accuracy. What might Boras have done with a 24-year-old Ruben Sierra, who had 114 homers and 790 hits before his 25th birthday? But there's no denying that Boras' number-crunching reminds us all that this truly is the Golden Era of shortstops. With Oakland's Miguel Tejada now just finishing his apprenticeship, it can only get better. Change of address for Chipper?Think about what might have happened if Chipper Jones hadn't made that error in the last inning of the season against Colorado. The Braves win, keep homefield advantage against St. Louis in the NL Division Series, stare down the Mets (again) and -- OK, OK -- lose to the Yankees in the World Series. Let's not put too much importance on one play, but Jones' error, coupled with John Rocker's inability to save his teammate by getting Todd Helton out, forced the Braves to unexpectedly get on a plane to St. Louis, where they played more horrid baseball on their way to a quick exit from the postseason. That play, though, is the most obvious example of why the Braves would like to remove Jones from third base. The club has concerns about how his defense has deteriorated at that position. Outfield seems to be Braves management's preferred destination for Jones, who could also play first base. Atlanta will wait to see how the rest of its offseason plays out before making a decision. One player who could influence Jones' position for next year is Ken Caminiti, the free-agent third baseman who is drawing strong interest in the market despite a season marred by injury and substance abuse rehabilitation. Detroit, Milwaukee, Seattle, Texas and the Yankees (who like him as a backup at third, first and DH, unless they can trade Scott Brosius) have expressed interest in Caminiti. Besides strong production from both sides of the plate, Caminiti brings leadership skills to the clubhouse. He earned his MVP award in San Diego while working with current Braves hitting coach Merv Rettenmund. The politics of votingIt is extremely rare for a manager to choose against one of his own players for a major award. Logic tells you the fallout could be quite nasty. But that's exactly what Giants manager Dusty Baker did in September when he told writers he thought Jeff Kent, not Barry Bonds, was the club MVP for his consistency throughout the season. That likely influenced many voters who had the difficult task of choosing between Kent and Bonds for NL MVP. If Kent was good enough to be his own manager's pick over Bonds, how could an out-of-town writer argue against him? Sure enough, Kent won the award, depriving Bonds of a fourth MVP and forcing him to settle for his second near miss. The relationship between Baker and Bonds often has seemed uneasy. This isn't going to help. Indeed, one source close to Bonds says the outfielder no longer plans to pursue a contract extension with the Giants this winter. Rather, the source said, Bonds will play the good soldier for a season and put himself on the free agent market a year from now. Give Baker credit for his honesty. The easy way to respond to such a question would have been to blather about how each of his players was deserving of the award and how it would be impossible to pick between the two of them. Maybe Kent would have won the award even if Baker had taken the easy way out. Maybe not. Baker must look Bonds in the eye knowing that the power of his words may have influenced the election. Can the issue simply disappear? Sure. But remember the fight between Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry during Mets photo day at spring training in 1989? Remember how it began? It started because Strawberry heard that Hernandez had told writers that Kevin McReynolds, not Strawberry, had been the team's MVP. Strawberry and McReynolds split the vote -- finishing second and third, respectively -- allowing Kirk Gibson to win the league MVP. Strawberry fell 36 points short, 272-236, to Gibson, even though his numbers (NL-leading 39 homers, 101 RBI, .371 on-base percentage and an NL-leading .545 slugging percentage) were mostly much better than Gibson's (25 HRs, 76 RBI, .381 OBP and .483 SLG).
Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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