Trade deficit

Sporting News, The, Dec 28, 1998 by Bob Hille

Gord Ash trudged out of the Opryland Hotel last week in Nashville, Tenn., with the look of a thoroughly defeated man. Baseball's winter meetings had just come to a merciful but unfulfilling end, and Ash, the Blue Jays' general manager, was returning to Canada with baseball's biggest unresolved winter question among the things he would have to declare at the border: Whither Roger Clemens?

Not only did fans want to know, but baseball itself needed to know.

The pursuit of Clemens was to be the signature mark of this get-together, the game's first full-scale winter meetings in six years. And, indeed, it was; but the effect was scarcely what the game had envisioned or desired.

Trade talks that Ash had hoped to complete before the meetings even began instead proved to be so muddled and tangled that many other trades never had a chance to be consummated.

So, as Ash left Nashville, it was time to play the blame game, and if Clemens, the only five-time Cy Young Award winner, has overpowering stuff in this deal-or-not scenario, then Ash was capable himself of delivering one high and tight when it came to how his peers were working the situation.

"It's almost like there's a misinformation campaign going on to lower his value," Ash said. "The kind of dollars mentioned have been wrong. Then there's all that self-righteous talk--`We don't have to talk to agents,' and how the agents are running the game."

No question, Ash has been placed in a difficult position by Clemens' December 1 trade demand, made possible through a vague handshake agreement with former team president Paul Beeston. But although Ash means well in trying to get top-notch talent for top-notch talent, the consensus around baseball is that he is in way over his head here.

His stubborn insistence that he can handle this trade like any other is laughable, especially after other G.M.s have revealed the degree to which Clemens' agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, are pulling the strings. Ash can demand all the premier players he wants, but the return the Jays will receive dwindles with every new million, every perk du jour Clemens demands.

Thus it appears that this Clemens derby will drag on indefinitely because of the highly complicated nature of any potential deal.

(Complicated? Let's break here to recount: Clemens doesn't just want to be traded. He also wants to be a free agent. Because he and the Hendricks brothers are no fools, they've figured out you can't make the really big bucks--read: "Kevin Brown money"--unless you're out there on the free-agent market. So they want a third year added to Clemens' contract, to the tune of $27.4 million. That would mean the new deal would average out to almost $15 million a year. That figure should ring familiar with those who remember Brown's contract numbers. Clemens reportedly also wants his new team to pay for some airline flights for his family, this being the new perk of the year, and, after all, that's what this is all about--keeping a $$$corecard with your peers.

More complicated? There is a question over the legality of the trade-on-demand side deal struck with Beeston, now chief, operating officer for Major League Baseball, when Clemens signed with the Jays before the 1997 season; generally, clauses not included in a written contract are not recognized as legal under baseball's Basic Agreement.)

As a consequence of the Byzantine nature of this potential deal, several other trades are on hold. An example: The Brewers are interested in trading second baseman Fernando Vina. The Cardinals want to team Vina with Edgar Renteria as a double-play combination, but the Rangers want him for a package to send to the Blue Jays for Clemens. Because the Rangers might be willing to offer more, it is in the Brewers' best interest to see how the Rangers' interest in Clemens plays out.

"Clemens gummed the whole thing up," one G.M. told Newsday as he prepared to board a flight home from Nashville. "There were a lot of things people wanted to do but couldn't."

By the time teams packed up to leave Nashville last week, baseball fans and officials alike were left to wonder what's next. After all, there were only eight trades and 10 free-agent deals at the winter meetings. Surely more moves will follow in the weeks alter the holidays.

But, in effect, virtually every team interested in picking up more pitching (and you could count on one hand the teams that aren't) is left in a holding pattern until Clemens lands.

Says Angels G.M. Bill Bavasi, who has talked with the Blue Jays, expressing an interest in young righthanders Kelvim Escobar, Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay: "It's difficult and frustrating became we think we have probably two clubs that we work with very well--we can help them and they can help us. But they can't move a starter until they get one. That's where I think the Clemens deal is holding everyone up. That's what I'm guessing. It has to have some impact."

This much is clear: The Hendrickses are operating under the assumption that they have the authority to veto any potential trade. It is just as clear that the Blue Jays want to trade Clemens to a place he is amenable to--the better to avoid a grievance. They also understand they are likely to get better players for Clemens if the team acquiring him knows it will have his services for more than a year. If Toronto ultimately trades him against his will, Clemens could demand a trade after one season, his right because he will have been traded in the middle of a multiyear contract.