Chicago White Sox

Just 48 hours after righthander Jaime Navarro arrived at the White Sox spring training headquarters in Sarasota, Fla., he was summoned into manager Terry Bevington's office. "You're my Number 1 guy," Bevington told Navarro. "You're my Opening Day starter. I'm counting on you."

Navarro says he was surprised by this bulletin because he was the newcomer to a staff that includes potential aces Wilson Alvarez and James Baldwin. Still, Navarro relished the responsibility. "I'll be ready," he told Bevington. "Give me the ball."

In the City of Big Shoulders, Navarro is a perfect fit. While amassing a 15-12 record with a 3.92 ERA for the mediocre Cubs last season, Navarro pitched four complete games, threw at least six innings in 27 of his 35 starts and was fourth in the league in innings pitched (236?). He has thrown at least 200 innings in five of the last six years playing for the Brewers and the Cubs. Only in the strike-shortened '94 season did he work fewer than 200. "I look at a baseball game like building a house," says Navarro, who has a 91-77 career record. "I start with the foundation, then build the walls and then the ceiling. I like to finish the job, and that means pitching nine innings."

Navarro doesn't like managers interrupting him while the house is under construction. With the Cubs he sometimes feuded with skipper Jim Riggleman after being lifted from games. He also grumbled about lack of run support and a shaky bullpen. "I'm not too worried about Navarro's temper, because I yelled at a few managers myself," says White Sox general manager Ron Schueler, a journeyman reliever in the 1970s. "I'd rather have a guy not wanting to come out after eight innings than a guy looking over his shoulder after five."

Schueler admits he was once concerned about Navarro's attitude, but he conveniently reconsidered after White Sox ace Alex Fernandez left to join the Marlins as a free agent on Dec. 9. Early the following morning Schueler called Navarro's agent to express his interest. Forty-five minutes later Navarro agreed to a four-year, $20 million deal.

With that decision Navarro became the best player to switch teams in Chicago since Sammy Sosa was traded by the White Sox to the Cubs in 1992. It isn't often that a player changes his business address without needing to change his home address, and Navarro says that the move has caused some consternation in his neighborhood. That's hardly surprising, given that Navarro, his wife, Tamara, and their son, Jaime Jr., and daughter, Jaycee, live four blocks from Wrigley Field.

While Navarro can no longer walk to work, he has found a benefit of the crosstown move. After that spring conversation with Bevington, he walked into the Sox clubhouse, gazed around at the lockers and read the nameplates: BELLE, THOMAS, PHILLIPS, VENTURA, BAINES.... "I saw a room full of great hitters," Navarro says. "I thought to myself, If I can win 15 games with the Cubs, there's no telling how many I can win with these bats behind me."

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