A breakup party looms for Giants
[jpgill, I'm pulling for them tonight...=)..]
By Bob Hohler
Boston Globe Staff
10/27/2002
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Talk about a last stand.
In these days of multimillion-dollar baseball vagabonds, the San Francisco Giants last night not only were on the verge of achieving their dream of capturing the franchise's first world championship in 48 years but of bidding farewell to a number of the players who helped them get there.
More than half the players in their starting lineup - Kenny Lofton, Jeff Kent, Reggie Sanders, David Bell, and Shawon Dunston - will be free agents next month, as will closer Robb Nen, relievers Tim Worrell and Scott Eyre, and outfielder Tom Goodwin.
Then there's general manager Brian Sabean, a New Hampshire native, and manager Dusty Baker, both of whose contracts expire after the Series.
By contrast, the Angels will end the season with only one free agent: Scott Spiezio.
''We're fortunate we've had the scouts and other people in this organization who went out there and developed our own players,'' said Angels outfielder Tim Salmon, one of 10 players on Anaheim's 25-man Series roster who have spent their entire career with the team after they were chosen in the amateur draft.
Notable among the others: Troy Glaus, Garret Anderson, Darin Erstad, Troy Percival, Jarrod Washburn, and John Lackey. All are signed at last through next season, which will make the Angels a serious contender from the start of spring training.
The Giants, meanwhile, appear on course to be exchanging greetings next spring with current teammates who will be wearing another team's colors.
Surely the Red Sox, who sorely lack the kind of home-grown talent the Angels have cultivated, will be monitoring the situation in San Francisco, where Nen, Worrell, or Eyre could be attractive.
But the Sox first will need to wait for the Giants to resolve the Sabean situation and see which free agents the San Francisco GM may re-sign while the club retains exclusive negotiating rights with them for 15 days after the Series.
For his part, Sabean sounds as if he almost certainly will remain in San Francisco, despite his apparent desire to one day serve as GM of the Sox, his boyhood team.
''I've got an open mind, but I'm treated real well here,'' he said in the Giants dugout before the game. ''It's one thing to have the kind of latitude I have, but to have the autonomy and authority, that's almost unheard of.''
Though the Giants appear to be facing a makeover even more drastic than the Yankees experienced last winter when they lost Scott Brosius and Paul O'Neill to retirement and Tino Martinez to free agency, Sabean considers the overhaul manageable.
Kent, who will be the premier second baseman on the market, may pose the toughest challenge for Sabean, as Barry Bonds did as a free agent last winter. Sabean signed Bonds through 2006.
''We have tough decisions every year,'' he said. ''Our goal is to get the strongest team with the biggest bang for our buck.''
The Giants will finish the season with a $78 million payroll, ninth highest in the majors, while the Angels rank 15th with a $62 million payroll. Despite the estimated $25 million boost the teams will receive for going seven games into the Series, the Giants plan to maintain a payroll of about $75 million next year.
Sabean said he hopes the face of the Giants does not change substantially over the winter.
''With the same range of payroll, we're going to have to be creative in how we spend our money and also very selective in who we ask back and re-sign,'' he said. ''It's going to take a lot of patience on both sides, whether it's Jeff Kent or anybody else.''
Should Kent move on, as many believe he plans to, the Giants may try to re-sign Bell and shift him to second base.
Lofton, Sanders, and Dunston, who do not figure prominently in the team's plans, are likely to be up for grabs on the free agent market. The Giants appear to be leaning toward re-signing Worrell, while Eyre is less of a certainty.
As for Nen, he is one of the top closers in the game, having become the youngest pitcher to reach 300 saves by his age, 32. He has 314 saves and has averaged more than 40 a season since he replaced Rod Beck as the Giants closer in 1998. Nen can exercise a contract option to stay in San Francisco. ''I'd be surprised if he'd want to go anywhere,'' Sabean said. ''He's making $8.3 million. I don't know how prudent it would be to go out there on the market because I don't know if anybody knows where the market will be. A lot of people think it's going to be a buyer's market because more and more teams are going to be operating under self-imposed restrictions.''
© Copyright 2002 Boston Globe Newspaper Company.
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