March 30th, 1998
My first month on the job has involved getting to know the current members of the team, from the manager to the team trainer, and everyone in between. I'm confident we have a strong coaching staff, but my number one concern right now is locking up
Ken Griffey Jr.,
Randy Johnson, and
Alex Rodriguez to long-term extensions.
By my estimate, I'll need about $25-30 million per year set aside for these three. We have roughly half that amount available to sign players to extensions, so this will go beyond trimming fat. I'll have to make over much of the roster, and do so with more of a butchers knife as opposed to a surgeons scalpel.
The most obvious route would be to trade our veteran rightfielder,
Jay Buhner. He's hit 40+ homeruns in each of his last three seasons, but is entering his mid-30's and is due $8.5 million in each of the next two years. He immediately put the kibosh on that by exercising his 10/5 rule to veto any trade. Luckily, I was able to string together two sizable trades that will free up considerable capital, while making a third deal that will have minimal impact on our budget.
TRADE WITH PITTSBURGH:
The Pirates trade dumps a whopping $12.4 million in total salary for the upcoming season. Left field is a wash between
Glenallen Hill and
Al Martin, but we are losing starting position players at first base, second base, and third base. That's a lot to give up, but
Aramis Ramirez could be the third baseman of the future for us. And, again, this is primarily about shedding payroll. This money alone could get Griffey under contract.
TRADE WITH PHILADELPHIA:
This was by far the worst trade of the lot. We lose the superior defensive catcher in
Dan Wilson, but rid ourselves of two horrendous contracts in
Mike Timlin and
Jeff Fassero. These three were set to make roughly $10.5 million for the 1998 season. I'm sure we can get Johnson under contract for about that same number.
TRADE WITH CINCINNATI:
We wound up taking on a small amount of payroll in this deal, but we end up getting a new starting second baseman in
Bret Boone, a possible new first baseman in
Dmitri Young, and a stop-gap at 3B in
Chris Stynes. In the long haul Boone will be an upgrade over
Joey Cora, and I'm confident Young will eventually outplay
David Segui at 1B. Stynes is probably a downgrade at third for us.
All in all, I pared just under $23 million in payroll that I will use to extend our Big 3. We take a big hit in our pitching staff and rotation, but manage to make improvements at 1B, 2B, while staying relatively even at LF, and downgrading at 3B. I like the trades and I now have $35 million available for extensions, but I have to capitalize quickly.