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Offseason's best and worst signings
Updated: Saturday January 13, 2001 1:14 AM
Free-agent shopping season is not quite officially over. Hey, Jesse Orosco is still out there. But the meaningful money already has been spent in baseball, although trying to figure out the meaning behind some clubs' expenditures requires the suspension of logic. Teams like to believe they're always a player or two away. ("Gee, if we just had Jose Mesa, we could win ... golly, 78 games!'") It's not likely any team won the pennant this winter, as you could loosely argue the Dodgers did prior to the 1988 season with Kirk Gibson or the Blue Jays did before the 1993 season with Paul Molitor. Trying to sort out a market in which almost twice as many players opted to switch teams (60) than return to the one for which they played last year (31) will take until October. But who wants to wait? Here is my take on the five best and five worst signings of the winter. P.S.: If anybody has any information that proves the Minnesota Twins are still in operation please give the commissioner's office a call. The Best Signings1. Mike Mussina, Yankees ($88.5 million, six years). When will other clubs learn? Strike quickly, and the cost is cheaper. Dally, and the cost goes up. Mussina's contract already looks like a bargain compared to the one the Rockies gave Mike Hampton. The Yankees got themselves the best pitcher available, an ace who will be even better now that he doesn't have the pressure of being an ace. 2. Juan Gonzalez, Cleveland ($10 million, one year). Here's another lesson that clubs must learn: Flexibility is good. The baseball world turns over quickly these days. Players come and go. Lose an Albert Belle, a Manny Ramirez, a Matt Williams? Another slugger always comes along. The trick is not to get stuck eating a long-term contract for a player who gets hurt or is on the downside of his career. The Indians nabbed a motivated player whose upside is as big as anybody's in baseball, especially with Robbie Alomar, Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel running their 3 X 360 relay every night. One year is perfect. 3. Manny Ramirez, Boston ($160 million [wink, wink], eight years). OK, so Ramirez and his agent desperately wanted that $20 million average annual value, even if it took some fuzzy math to get it. Whoopee. What's important is that the Red Sox got themselves the big stick they needed, and with Rick Down taking over as hitting coach, Trot Nixon, Jose Offerman, Troy O'Leary and Jason Varitek ought to shake out of their 2000 funks. Ramirez drives in runs in his sleep, and the Boston media and fans won't bother him in the least. The guy has the perfect attitude for dealing with outside distractions. He doesn't care about anything but his four or five at-bats a night. 4. Alex Rodriguez, Texas ($252 million, 10 years). Sure, it's not my money. What's most amazing is that Rangers owner Tom Hicks stood up and said after getting the deal done that he'll still make money this year. No players had to be traded to make room for Rodriguez and his contract. Translation: The Rangers can easily afford the best player in the game. The entire franchise, the land around the ballpark (which Hicks owns) and the naming rights to The Ballpark all are worth more money now that A-Rod is there. The Rangers will get his best years. The contract is an aberration because A-Rod is an aberration. The game has never seen anybody like him. 5. Charles Johnson, Florida ($35 million, five years). Seven million per year for a Gold Glove catcher who hits 30 home runs? A bargain, especially when compared to the $10 million per year Pittsburgh paid to keep Jason Kendall, the most expensive non-slugging position player in the game. The Worst Signings1. Jose Mesa/Rheal Cormier, Philadelphia (combined $15.5 million for five years). Why would a team that isn't close to winning spend big money with long-term contracts for two aged journeymen relievers? Folks, some things in this universe simply cannot be explained. 2. Derek Bell, Pittsburgh ($9 million, two years). It's hard to tell the difference between Bell and Ron Gant, given their respective numbers from the past two seasons:
To summarize the slight differences, Bell walks less, hits for a lower average, whiffs more and is less of a slugger than Gant. Actually, it has been hard to gauge Bell's value ever since his big 1998 season for Houston. He's a corner outfielder with little power who doesn't get on base and strikes out often. Yet the Pirates, a franchise that doesn't exactly have loads of cash to throw around, tossed $9 million over two years to Bell. Two years? As if you couldn't find another Derek Bell after this season? What would be more reasonable? Try one year at $2.05 million. That's exactly what the Rockies gave Gant. How there could be almost a $7 million difference between these two players is a mystery. 3. Mike Hampton, Colorado ($121 million, eight years). Hampton is a great athlete and competitor who won't make any excuses when he has a 5.00 ERA come August. He's a legit front-of-the-rotation pitcher. It was something of a coup for the high-altitude Rockies to get a pitcher like him, like Boca Raton getting Franz Klammer. So what's the problem? The length of the contract. Hampton sentenced himself to eight years of hard labor. I'll never forget what Tom Glavine told me about Coors Field: He is more sore after pitching a game there than anywhere else. Pitchers have to be so perfect making sure they finish every single pitch, especially their breaking balls, that it takes a physical toll. Hampton talked about the challenge of having to make a great pitch with every offering in Coors. That is also the dark side of pitching at Coors. The mental and physical toll wears down pitchers in that park. Hampton is a guy who throws across his body and, as evidenced by his walk totals, loses his mechanics from time to time. He's a great pitcher and an asset to any staff. Having to make 16 or 17 starts a year for eight years at Coors Field is a grind that is likely to beat down even a warrior like Hampton. Consider the length of the contract combat pay. 4. Darren Dreifort, Los Angeles ($55 million, five years). A penny stock. Who knows, maybe Dreifort really is just hitting a prime that will include consistent 15-win seasons. It's just that a pitcher ought to have won 14 games just once in his life or pitched 200 innings just one time or thrown two complete games in a season or had at least a .500 career record to be guaranteed $11 million a year for five years. Dreifort has none of those qualifications. 5. Jeffrey Hammonds, Milwaukee ($21.75 million, three years). Give the Brewers a little money and they have no clue what to do with it. Do the names Greg Brock, Marquis Grissom, Jose Hernandez, Teddy Higuera and Franklin Stubbs ring a bell? The Cheeseheads' spending record stinks like Stilton. So with Miller Park set to open, the only team that co-opted a beer logo for its cap insignia now has more moola to spend. Why not give it to Hammonds, a guy who turns 29 in March and still hasn't played 125 games in a major league season? Gerald Ford wasn't as injury prone as this guy. Moreover, the Brewers were bamboozled by his numbers last year: .335, 20 HR, 106 RBIs. Look closely and you'd find Hammonds hit .399 at Coors Field (.275 elsewhere), with 14 of his 20 homers and 71 of his 106 RBIs at home. Outside of Coors, he is a lifetime .269 hitter. Unless the Brewers can raise the foundation of Miller Park a mile or so and obtain a waiver that allows him to wear medieval armor during games, this investment looks poor. The one mistake small-revenue clubs cannot afford to make is paying players big money to sit on the DL. That risk with Hammonds is huge. Dishonorable mention: Steve Trachsel, 68-84 for his career (including 16-33 the past two seasons) and the world's most methodical pitcher, receives two guaranteed years from the Mets for $7 million. ... Likewise, the Red Sox gave Frank Castillo two guaranteed years as well ($4.5 million). That is the only thing guaranteed about Castillo. Total wins for Castillo over the past three years: 13. Total innings: 254, or about 85 a year. ... Braves' signee Dave Martinez (two years, $3 million) qualifies on principle. The man has never played in the postseason. No current player has been around longer without getting to the postseason -- and we're talking about someone who has played on the Blue Jays, Giants, Reds and White Sox, no strangers to the postseason since Martinez broke in back in 1986 with the Cubs. Atlanta could have saved some money and just hired an albatross instead.
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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