Offseason player bazaar could be bizarre

Sporting News, The, Oct 18, 1993 by Peter Pascarelli

There has never been only one way to build a winning team, especially in these day of amateur drafts, big-market/small-market franchises and $40-million payrolls.

But there likely has never been a period in baseball history during which clubs needed to be more resourceful in talent procurement to make themselves into contenders.

Building a winner has always begun with scouting and a strong farm system. It has always been a historical given that any championship franchise needed a foundation built upon its minor league development.

Now, that basic tenet might seem challenged by the Phillies, the National League East champions. Rarely has any club advanced this far with so little contribution from its farm system. The Phillies have a pitching staff made up entirely of pitchers acquired from other organizations via trades or free agency. Of their everyday nucleus (including three platoon positions), only three players - Darren Daulton, Mickey Morandini and Kevin Stocker - were produced by the Phillies' farm system.

However, the Phillies are an aberration not likely to be repeated anywhere else. When you look at this year's other division champions and the division champs of the past few years, all have had significant parts of their foundation produced by their own organizations.

And the farm system remains important. More and more clubs have become unwilling to give players multiyear contracts. The pattern of clubs such as Pittsburgh, which built itself into a winner and then became unable or unwilling to pay the price for keeping the club together, is likely to be repeated. And clubs with consistent production from their farm systems will be the ones that bounce back the quickest.

However, there has rarely been more talent on the open market than there is nowadays. More than 300 players changed teams last winter. And considering the uncertain labor situation and the drop in network TV revenue, this offseason should be just as wild.

Several club officials predict there will be a huge number of players whose options won't be picked up or who will not be tendered contracts. Many will be arbitration-eligible players, whose clubs will elect to make free agents through non-tendering rather than keep through arbitration. Many veterans with contract options will be made free agents with their clubs then trying to sign them at reduced prices. The fringe veterans will be released; clubs reason their reserve roles can be just as well filled by minor league reinforcements or cheaper free-agent pickups.

And at the same time, a number of general managers predict there will be a surprising number of significant players made available by teams that feel they must cut payrolls. Already, there is rumbling that Larry Walker or Marquis Grissom might be available from Montreal, that Baltimore will shop Mike Devereaux and that the Cubs are willing to talk about dealing Mark Grace. Bob Tewksbury (St. Louis), Mitch Williams (Philadelphia) and Kevin McReynolds (Kansas City) might be traded or let go. But that's not all. Andy Benes (San Diego), Todd Stottlemyre (Toronto), Terry Steinbach (Oakland) and Terry Pendleton and Ron Gant (Atlanta) are said to be available if the right offers come along.

All these players aren't likely to be moved. But the point is that in this time of economic upheaval, there are few givens on any roster, but at the same time, all kinds of potential options are available.

And though baseball people lament how the bottom line has become more of a consideration than pure talent, the fact is that in these uncertain times, a club's ability to judge talent and be creative in how it acquires players will be tested more than ever.

No surprise in Chicago

The merits of firing Jim Lefebvre as Cubs manager are highly debatable. But no one was shocked Cubs G.M. Larry Himes made the move.

Lefebvre has been on his way out ever since Himes saddled Lefebvre with a flawed team and then put him on thin ice by saying last May that the Cubs should be at least 10 games over .500 by the All-star break. And during the final weeks of the season when Himes had constant meetings with Lefebvre and his coaching staff, Lefebvre was warned by those who know Himes' modus operandi that Himes was merely pumping Lefebre dry of his talent assessments before relieving him of his duties.

The result of an this is that the Cubs are again in a state of uncertainty. The early-line favorites for Lefebvre's job are Cubs coaches Tony Muser and Tom Trebelhorn, both of whom were plants by Himes in Lefebvre's clubhouse. Jeff Torborg remains a possibility as well.

But after two years in which many Cubs players and employees have been turned off by Himes' joyless and mysterious ways, the Cubs' ownership is finally taking a closer look at their general manager. And if this next managerial hire and the offseason's player moves don't appreciably improve things, the next change could be Himes himself.

Mixed emotions in Houston

On the one hand, no one deserves to be a general manager more than Bob Watson. He was a class act as a player and has performed all front-office duties in his five years as assistant general manager with the Astros. He was more than ready for the big job.