Baseball

Expo Economics

They have the second-lowest payroll in baseball, yet they had the game's best record through Sunday. They don't draw well, they're losing money, and after this season they'll lose at least one frontline player to budget constraints. Yet somehow they'll replenish. They're the Montreal Expos, and they're shooting holes in the assertion by major league owners that small-market teams can't compete.

The Expos have competed—and more. Their payroll is $18.6 million, higher than that of only the Padres ($13.5 million) and less than half that of the league's top spender, the Braves ($40.5 million). Yet at week's end Montreal had won 11 of its last 12 games and held a 3�-game lead over Atlanta in the National League East.

"This could be the year of the Expos," says Kevin Malone, who became Montreal's general manager in January after two seasons as the Expos' director of scouting. "We've made a lot of sacrifices over the years, and we've been through some very difficult times. If we're not able to reap the possible rewards of this season, that would be disappointing. But the other 27 clubs would know we did it the right way."

The Expos were 65-38 through Sunday because they have outscouted teams over the past decade, they've always done a superb job of developing their players and they've made some great trades in the past few years. Rightfielder Larry Walker, centerfielder Marquis Grissom and shortstop Wil Cordero are among the standouts who came up through the Expo system. Two other homegrown products, rookie first baseman-outfielder Cliff Floyd and outfielder Rondell White, are potential stars. Catcher Darrin Fletcher, an All-Star this year, was plucked from Philadelphia for pitcher Dennis Cook in 1990. Leftfielder Moises Alou, another '94 All-Star, was swiped from Pittsburgh in a 1990 trade for pitcher Zane Smith. Closer John Wetteland was heisted from the Reds in '91. Lefthander Jeff Fassero was signed in '90 as a minor league free agent.

The Expos don't sign big-name free agents, they lose them—or deal them before they get to free agency. In the past eight years they have parted with Andre Dawson, Hubie Brooks, Mark Langston, Pascual Perez, Bryn Smith, Tim Raines, Tim Wallach, Delino DeShields and Dennis Martinez. They'll probably lose Walker to free agency after this season because he'll be asking for about $5 million a year. The Expos can't afford that, not if they want to hang on to Alou, Grissom, Fassero, reliever Mel Rojas and ace Ken Hill, all of whom are eligible for arbitration.

Although the Expos considered trading Walker, they've held on to him—partly because they're in a pennant race and partly because the impending strike has put other teams off—and are now resigned to getting only a draft choice should they lose him to free agency at the end of the season. Before the strike date was set, teams also were asking about Wetteland (who, at $2.2 million a year, is one of only five Expos making seven-figure salaries).

Expo veterans have griped about the team's refusal to keep its own stars and its failure to make major trades down the stretch. In '92 the Blue Jays acquired pitcher David Cone on Aug. 27 for a pennant drive; four days later the Expos, also in a division-title hunt, traded for pitcher Bill Krueger. Martinez, then Montreal's ace, publicly blasted the front office.

There has been no grousing this year—at least not since spring training, when Grissom called the trade of DeShields to Los Angeles for pitcher Pedro Martinez "the deal of the century...for the Dodgers." (He may have spoken too soon; through Sunday, Martinez was 9-5 with 129 strikeouts in 128 innings, while DeShields was hitting just .256.) Expo players understand the rules of playing in Montreal, baseball's 12th-smallest market, where the Expos are averaging only 23,724 fans per game, 21st in the major leagues; Malone estimates the club will lose between $5 million and $10 million this year. "We have a lot of character on this club," Malone says. "You don't find much of that anymore."

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