February 8, 2007

HOPE IS ALL THAT’S LEFT AS BARGAIN SHOPPING SEASON BEGINS

      Typically the major league baseball off-season begins with a bang, as teams make big dollar contract offers to star free agents who spend days, if not weeks, deciding on their next destination--and then ends with a whimper as fringe players accept minor league offers filled with incentive laden clauses and basic spring training invitations.  This time of the year could easily be classified “bargain-bin shopping days” as clubs attempt to fill in the bottom end of their rosters with the slim pickings left in the depleted free agent pool.

       The off-season begins with such promise for all free agents.  They proclaim their freedom and then wait, with their agents, for the onslaught of offers to pour in for their services.  The cream of the crop are the first to be signed—teams need to adjust their payrolls and their rosters for the big money players.  The next step for teams is to fill in the middle of their rosters, and their payrolls, with the relatively expensive veterans that can be signed to short-term deals.  The very last issue for clubs is the filling out of their rosters—picking up possible bench players and those to fill out the rosters of their minor league clubs.  It is here that veterans receive non-guaranteed offers and hope that they can show enough during spring training to earn a major league position. 

      There are two veterans who are perfect examples of how quickly players can fall.   Shannon Stewart is not an innocent when it comes to the free agent process.  Back in 2003 the Toronto Blue Jays traded the superstar outfielder in mid-year ostensibly because they believed they would not be able to afford Stewart’s demands when he became a free agent following the season.  Stewart became a cornerstone for a Twins club that repeated as AL Central Division champions and was considered important enough to the club’s success that even though he played only half a season in Minnesota he received numerous MVP votes.  The small market Twins were willing, during that off-season, to meet Stewart’s asking price and believed that it would ensure the team’s continuing success.  Stewart, however, soon fell victim to the injury predator.  Foot and leg problems took away his swiftness.  He missed nearly half the following year and, though he played in the majority of Minnesota’s games in 2005 he was obviously not the same player.  By 2006 his foot problems, he suffered from the dreaded plantar fascitis, were so severe that he was limited to only 44 games.  This time, as free agency beckoned, the Twins showed no interest.  Clubs were hesitant to spend any money on him—he was thought to be just another broken down ballplayer.  Stewart recently signed an incentive laden one-year deal with Oakland—a far cry from his first free agent experience.  Three years ago he was an MVP candidate—now he’s merely an inexpensive gamble for a team willing to take a chance that he has something left. 

      In 1998 Bruce Chen was considered one of the top pitching prospects in baseball.  The lefthander was one of an up and coming group of Atlanta Braves pitchers thought to be capable of taking over from Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.    A combination of a deep Atlanta rotation and Chen’s inability to find the plate on a consistent basis however caused the Braves to give up on him after three years of bouncing him between the majors and the minors.  With his pedigree—the Braves farm system was considered the best in baseball at producing pitchers—other clubs were willing to give Chen a shot at becoming the pitcher he was projected to be.  The list of major league clubs was plentiful--Chen became a baseball vagabond willing to take a job anywhere at anytime.  It looked like he finally turned the corner in 2005 when he won 13 games for Baltimore, but last season he regressed and went winless.  The Orioles, his seventh major league club, subsequently released him.   Now, just short of his 30^th birthday, the former pitching prospect with the all-star potential signed a minor league deal with Texas and is a non-roster invitee to spring training.  This actually may be Chen’s last chance.    

       With spring training camps set to open the hour is getting late for those who still cling to the hope of being a major league player this season.   There is nothing left for the Stewarts and the Chens of the baseball world to do but accept the minor league deals, the incentive laden clauses and the basic spring training invitations.  The hope remains that, like Frank Thomas did the year before, they can have a healthy and productive campaign.  That way next off-season they can be one of the first players signed--not one of the last.

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