Exposed hurlers hold the key

Availability of Montreal's arms will ignite the hot stove

What most baseball observers see as a slowly incubating offseason market for player movement is due to get a jolt in about two weeks. That's when the Montreal Expos may have to start listening to offers for pitchers Bartolo Colon, Javier Vazquez and Tony Armas Jr., if they expect to meet Major League Baseball's budget requirement. There's nothing like three available workhorse starters between the ages of 24 and 28 to stir the soup.

For now, Montreal GM Omar Minaya is telling interested teams he has no need to dump players because he has yet to be given a budget by commissioner Bud Selig. That will soon change. A baseball source said the league hopes to finalize a plan "within two weeks" for the Expos to play 20 home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Consideration of also playing games in Portland, Ore., has been scrapped for now, the source said, because baseball doesn't "want this to turn into a traveling road show."

Another baseball source said the games in Puerto Rico would probably add between $5 million and $7 million in revenue to the Expos. While hammering out the details of that plan may have delayed getting Minaya a firm budget, the two sources said Montreal is not likely to be able to spend much more money, if any, than it did last season, when its $38 million payroll ranked 29th. Only Tampa Bay, at $34 million, spent less. Major league owners, who have assumed ownership and operational responsibility of the Expos, don't have the stomach for losing more money on an orphaned franchise.

"If they're waiting for a windfall to come, it's not going to happen," one source said.

Because of raises due Colon ($8.25 million next year) as well as Vazquez, Armas, catcher Michael Barrett and shortstop Orlando Cabrera, all of whom are eligible for arbitration, Montreal's payroll will jump to about $49 million in 2003 if the club is kept intact, according to one team source. Major League owners just aren't going to joyfully kick in another $11 million in subsidies to keep the Expos together.

With the exception of the Phillies, most teams are taking a wait-and-see approach to major player transactions this winter, allowing one of the more curious financial markets to define itself. The wait for the Expos' budget fallout is another reason that process will be a slow one. Take the Yankees, for instance, whose primary objective is to inject major-league-ready young arms into an aging rotation. Think they haven't pictured one of the Expos' pitchers in pinstripes? As baseball officials wrap up the San Juan plan -- they're still wrestling over which series to assign there -- Selig gets closer to giving the Expos their budget. And that's when Minaya becomes the most popular man in baseball among his peers.

Extra bases

Where do the Red Sox turn now that Billy Beane followed his gut instinct and stayed in Oakland? Though Boston assistant GM Theo Epstein has been guiding owner Larry Lucchino to "candidates who are better than me," Lucchino may come around to offering Epstein the job, according to a source familiar with the process. In that case, the Red Sox would surround Epstein with seasoned advisors as he grows into the job, just as Gene Michael and Mark Newman provided guidance for a young Brian Cashman with the Yankees. One of the potential advisors mentioned is pitching guru and senior vice president of the Dodgers Dave Wallace, a Massachusetts native. Remember, Lucchino tried to hire Beane in San Diego when Beane was barely on the radar screen of potential GM material. Beane turned him down then because he didn't think he was ready for the job. Lucchino then made a successful reach for another up-and-coming (if somewhat unknown) star, Kevin Towers. ...

Give credit to Phillies GM Ed Wade for taking a bold, honestly aggressive approach to wooing free agents to Philadelphia. He made offers Monday to Jim Thome, David Bell and Tom Glavine and will fly to Seattle on Thursday to recruit pitcher Jamie Moyer. Wade's upfront approach buys the Phillies needed public goodwill and should be taken by the free agents as a measure of the club's commitment while most other teams take a cautious or clandestine approach. It's nice to have money to spend. ...

The Yankees deny it, but other clubs grudgingly are assuming New York has reached a clandestine agreement with Japanese free-agent outfielder Hideki Matsui on a contract believed to be worth about $23 million over two years. "It stinks and we could complain to the commissioner's office, but what are they going to do?" one NL club executive said. ... At least two scouts said Yankees third base prospect Drew Henson is no prospect at all. "There's nothing there," said one. Another observed that Henson fights his way into deeper slumps at the plate and though he shows fielding ability in pregame workouts, he can't make plays and throws wildly once the game starts. "He can't play the position," the scout said. ...

Speaking about baseball setting a Darren Baker Rule, which will limit the number of batboys in the dugout to two and set a minimum age requirement of at least double digits, Baseball executive vice president Sandy Alderson had this gem about kids in the Giants' dugout: "It seemed like literally a Baker's dozen."

Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.

 

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