New kids on the block are flexing their muscles

Sporting News, The, Dec 15, 1997 by Peter Schmuck

Major League Baseball couldn't wait to welcome Jerry Colangelo into the fold. He was a successful NBA owner willing to bring his wealth and expertise into a sport

Struggling to keep up with the competition, so he was awarded an expansion franchise in Arizona and -- for all practical purposes -- handed the keys to the kingdom. Now, he appears to be giving away the farm.

The fledgling Diamondbacks recently signed shortstop Jay Bell to a five-year deal worth $34 million, a figure most executives considered to be well over market value. The new franchise just acquired third baseman Matt Williams from the Indians and gave him a long-term deal worth a reported $9 million per year, even though Williams was dead set on playing near his children in Arizona and might have come much cheaper.

You can almost hear Colangelo congratulating himself because he got two star-quality players and didn't have to give either one of them a 10-year, $90 million NBA-style megadeal, and you can almost hear the baseball establishment second-guessing itself for going along with this expansion business.

It certainly seemed like a good idea at the time. The Diamondbacks and Devil Rays paid about $300 million between them in 1995 for the privilege of joining the major leagues, money the other clubs divided among themselves at a time when they needed all the revenue they could get to offset spiraling salaries and sagging television revenues. No one expected both clubs to become immediate market makers and drive the cost of doing business even higher.

Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli has been just as willing to spend freely to ensure his new team is representative. The Rays quickly signed free-agent reliever Roberto Hernandez to a four-year, $22.5 million deal and recently raised eyebrows by giving lefthander Wilson Alvarez a five-year deal worth $35 million.

Both clubs appear to have thrown economic caution to the wind in an attempt to ensure they will not be 100-loss expansion teams, which would be fine if their questionable personnel decisions did not have an impact on their new neighbors.

Baseball salaries rose by an average of 19 percent last year without any outside help. Now, with two new teams driving up prices further, the huge gap between the large- and small-revenue clubs is certain to get wider, and the high prices being paid for mid-level talent (Alvarez has averaged 11 victories during his six years as a full-time starter) will make it difficult for small-revenue clubs to keep even their marginal players.

"We set out to fill our club with experienced, established and very good major league players to go along with the young players we took in the expansion draft," Devil Rays general manager Chuck Lamar says. "The object is to try and become competitive as fast as you can without losing sight of long-range goals."

But instead of learning a lesson from the rise and fall of the Marlins, the new clubs seem intent on emulating them. The Marlins spent so liberally in their rush to become the quickest expansion club to the World Series that they have been forced to embark on an equally ambitious downsizing program to remain solvent.

The Marlin helped account for the dramatic rise in baseball's average salary with their $85 million free-agent shopping spree last winter, and set a record when they signed outfielder Gary Sheffield to a $60 million contract extension. Now, they are turning back, but the economic tide will not recede with them.

The Diamondbacks and Devil Rays haven't set any standards, but they already have had a dramatic impact on the marketplace.

It might be convenient to chalk all this up to the predictable overexuberance of new ownership or the inexperience of a pair of rookie general managers, but that wouldn't be entirely fair, The Diamondbacks and Devil Rays were born to an industry that has long been out of economic control. If they are suffering from temporary economic insanity, they came by it honestly.

inside dish

OK, so who forgot to tell free-agent pitcher Darryl Kile that Coors Field is the last place you want to go to build on a 19-win season? Kile's new three-year contract with the Rockies guarantees him a market salary of more than $7 million per year but can't protect him against the inflated offensive numbers that come with thin air. He'll figure out soon enough that a Rocky Mountain high fastball is anything above the ankles, and he'll learn to be happy with a 3.75 ERA.

Don't be surprised if Cecil Fielder winds up in Texas. The Rangers are pursuing a less-expensive pitcher (Pete Schourek, maybe) and considering Fielder, who likely would push Lee Stevens out as DH. ... New White Sox manager Jerry Manuel says he is looking forward to working with volatile outfielder Albert Belle. Of course, what else could he say on his first day as manager -- that he's planning a big Halloween prank for next October? ... Manuel, of course, is another graduate of the Jim Leyland school of managing. He is the second Marlins coach to become a major league manager in the past month. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild was hired in early November to manage the Devil Rays.