Mariners plan to keep A-Rod for 2000
Posted in the Seattle Times on March 9, 2000
by Bob Finnigan
PEORIA, Ariz. - Just before Mariner officials stuffed incessant Alex Rodriguez trade whispers by saying he would be with the club for the 2000 season, Rodriguez gave the camp a scare.
Only an hour before CEO Howard Lincoln filled yesterday's noontime air and the fancy of Seattle fans with fulsome talk of Rodriguez being around to lead the club this year, all that hope looked risky.
During a workout preceding Lincoln's news conference, the shortstop went feet over face after slipping on wet grass while chasing a practice grounder, to land on his butt.
Rodriguez lay there for a five count while much of the Seattle camp held its breath, then got up slowly and trying to regain his usual dignity, walked toward the batting cages.
When a reporter laughed and asked, "How you lookin'?" Rodriguez laughed back and made a most unleaderlike gesture.
An hour later, Rodriguez was upright and composed in front of the media with General Manager Pat Gillick listening to Lincoln express his "delight that Alex Rodriguez would remain for 2000, with no plans to trade him."
The Mariners' ultra-involved top man said it was the unanimous conclusion of team officials that "the best way to win in 2000 is for Alex to remain, and the best way for us to keep Alex long term is for the team to win in 2000."
This had been finalized Tuesday afternoon when those officials met with Rodriguez and his agent, Scott Boras, the fourth in a series of face-to-face sessions in which the player and his rep made three feelings clear:
1. Rodriguez would not alter his position on negotiating a multiyear deal before he enters the free-agent market after this season;
2. He wanted to stay and help lead the club in 2000;
3. He has an open mind about re-signing with the Mariners, even as a free agent.
The Mariners, Lincoln in particular, are doing all they can within Rodriguez's restriction on re-signing now, to make the big infielder feel an essential part of the organization.
Lincoln, known as a canny businessman as head of Nintendo USA, said, "This decision is part head and part heart. I'm as comfortable with it as any decision I've ever made as a businessman."
Gillick was more sanguine.
"It's a roll of the dice," the Mariner baseball boss said. "We basically have to take his word. He likes to win and we have a better chance to re-sign him if we win. Sometimes you have to roll the dice."
The news conference was called to add cement to the connection of Rodriguez to the ballclub, and secondarily to bury the speculation Rodriguez would be dealt if he would not sign a multiyear deal.
"This should quell the rumors that we have shopped Alex around," Gillick said of the announcement. "That is completely untrue. We have not shopped Alex around. Other teams have inquired, about a half-dozen. We have told them all Alex is not available."
The event was marked by the word "excitement," which was in sharp contrast to several news gatherings this past offseason where the mood was somber, even sad, about Ken Griffey Jr.'s desire to leave and his eventual departure.
"Kenny made it clear, he did not want to stay in our organization," Lincoln said. "Alex is a great young man who has said he wants to stay and wants to win, and not only says these things but demonstrates them on a daily basis. How do you trade a guy who does this?"
There were no other direct mentions of Griffey, but he was alluded to a number of times.
Rodriguez, who has said nothing but good things about his former teammate, made only one seeming inference to the outfielder and his trade when he said: "There's been a perception we made a lateral move. But we are no longer a team that hits long balls and loses. The team we have now will be exciting to watch, we added veteran players we needed, and pitching. I'm excited. I'm ready to go."
Boras did not mention Griffey by name but there was no mistaking he was referring to the Reds' new star and the way he dominates a team when he said, "In Alex's concept as leader of a team, when you enter the locker room you don't have to look in one particular direction, you don't have to watch what you say, concerned that one voice will override what you have to say. You all do things, together, as a team, no exceptions."
That undoubtedly was about Griffey's practice of not stretching with the team before games and last season, after he was banged up, of not taking pregame batting practice much of the time.
Lincoln made one final sideways reference to Griffey in response to a question that the decision to hold Rodriguez for the season was based on the feeling the club could not sustain another major change.
"We had the option to throw up our hands and trade him," the CEO said. "It was not a viable option. If he had said I only want to play the balance of the season here and try not to be a disruption, to hit as many home runs as I can, then our decision might be different. But it was based on what Alex can do for us, not from reluctance to make another big trade."
While the Mariners had hoped in the meetings, held in Florida in October, Las Vegas in November, and two here this spring, to make a three- or four-year offer, sources said no offer was made in any of the meetings, including this week's.
Rodriguez made the only offer, and the club is thinking of taking him up on it. According to Boras, Rodriguez said he would write a letter to season-ticket holders about his hopes for the upcoming season. "And," the agent added, "make phone calls to former season-ticket people who have not renewed this year."
The issue of Rodriguez as team leader is not new. Earlier this spring, Manager Lou Piniella, Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner told The Times that the shortstop's time had come. "Alex can lead us," Buhner said. "It should be his team."
But Lincoln made it a matter of record and Boras took it a step further.
"Now Lou (Piniella), if he cares to, can think of Alex as captain of the team," the agent said. "I almost wish they'd put a C on his chest and let him run the club."
Rodriguez surely would shy away from Boras' feelings on this. But Piniella did not.
"The idea of naming Alex a team captain has been discussed more than you think," the manager said. "We virtually had one in Barry Larkin in Cincinnati. It was obvious he was our guy."
Captaincy of a team is a lost position in baseball, almost quaint unlike pro hockey or football.
"It's rare now because most players don't want to deal with the responsibilities of the job," Piniella said. "It takes a man who has evolved as a team leader, as Alex has. He'll grow in that role."
And then there is the matter of just how long Rodriguez will be a Mariner.
Lincoln was asked what would happen if the team staggered toward the July 31 trading deadline, Seattle's last chance to get more than two draft picks if Rodriguez left after the season as a free agent.
What happens to yesterday's blissful prognostication?
"There are always unforeseen possibilities," he said. "If that occurs, we would re-evaluate our decision here before July 31. But our plan is to win, Alex's plan is to win."
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