It’s no crime for a major-league team to be old or to be bad. Those cycles are often inevitable. But when a team is both old and bad, well, it is time to do more than just fine-tune the machine.
That is the situation the Cubs find themselves in this winter. It’s the same one they faced at this time last year, except for one difference. With his baseball future on the line, Cubs President/General Manager Andy MacPhail cannot afford to remain in denial.
“It’s like putting parts into an old car,” a scout for a rival National League franchise said. “At what point do you just junk the car?”
MacPhail, who stepped down the corporate ladder when GM Ed Lynch resigned last July, has decided it is time for a trade-in.
The current version of Mr. Cub, first baseman Mark Grace, has not received an offer to return for a 14th season with the franchise. There’s a reasonable chance that home-run hero Sammy Sosa also won’t return for his 10th year with the Cubs. If Sosa does return, it appears he either will be traded during 2001 or leave as a free agent next winter.
The Cubs’ last-place finish in 2000 was the sixth time in nine years they were a losing team while constructed around Grace and Sosa. The 100-169 record since June 9, 1999, represents the worst extended period in their 125-year history.
MacPhail knows he is making a politically dangerous move by not re-signing the popular Grace. But he believes the time is right to use less expensive alternatives at first base while investing the $5.3 million that Grace earned last year in pitching.
“We haven’t cracked the 70-win barrier in two seasons now,” MacPhail said. “Clearly the current formula is not working. That’s no individual’s fault. Since I’m in charge of the day-to-day operation, I’m going to change our priority to pitching. I’ve been clear about that since the season ended.”
These are clearly difficult times for Grace and Sosa, who have represented their organization so well. But while Sosa has some control over his fate–he rejected a contract extension believed to be in the neighborhood of four years, $64 million–Grace must wrestle with outright rejection.
This is an awkward, if not painful, situation for a proud player who has only one division title (the NL East in 1989) to show for 2,201 career hits with the Cubs, who claimed him in the 1985 draft. The 36-year-old with the filthy uniform often has talked about wanting to spend his career with only one team, but the feeling no longer seems reciprocal.
Grace didn’t say farewells when he left Wrigley Field after the Sept. 28 game against Philadelphia. He said he had a feeling he would be back. But instead of the Cubs, it is the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants who have called Grace’s agent, Barry Axelrod.
The Diamondbacks have made a two-year offer worth $6 million to $8 million. Grace could accept it–or an offer with the Braves–any day.
Grace has lashed out at MacPhail in recent interviews. His comments toward MacPhail have been so sharp as to make one wonder if there is more to the Cubs’ decision than meets the eye. Is this about personalities or strictly business?
Grace has said MacPhail is making the decision to sign elsewhere “an easy decision for me, by not returning phone calls, by not showing any interest at all.” In an interview with the Daily Herald, he said he had no problem with Tribune Co. management “except for the guy who doesn’t like me.”
When Grace made those charges in a round of interviews last weekend, MacPhail was continuing to say he had not ruled out having Grace back with the Cubs. His interest, he said, would be on the market for free-agent pitching. Once that was resolved, he would turn his attention to other matters, including the situation at first base.
No one knows of problems between MacPhail and Grace before the current negotiations. But the public assault by Grace badly wounded MacPhail. If there is one thing for which he cannot be faulted, it is communicating with those around him.
MacPhail says he returned the only call he has received from Axelrod this winter. Axelrod says Grace since has told him he misspoke about unreturned phone calls.
“Mark called me and said, `I said that wrong,”‘ Axelrod said. “Andy has, for all the years I’ve known him, been responsive. I don’t want to unfairly disparage him. He has returned our calls.”
But MacPhail still is seething about the perception of ill will Grace created with his comments. If their relationship was fine two weeks ago, that no longer appears to be the case.
“It was several people who got that impression, not just a comment he made to somebody,” MacPhail said. “I was stunned by it. I understand Mark’s frustration. He has had a productive 13-year career. He has been a free agent for a week and hasn’t had an offer from us. I know that frustrates him. At the same time, I really don’t know why something of that nature would come up. It’s the first time it has happened to me in 25 years in this game.”
MacPhail believes the Cubs have been more than fair to their first baseman, paying Grace a total of $37.4 million through the years. He believes last year’s contract–a one-year deal for $5.3 million–will look good when compared to his best offer for 2001.
But there’s no denying Grace’s unusual loyalty to the Cubs. He signed 11 one-year contracts and only one multiyear deal (a deal for two years and an option in ’96 later amended to three and an option) during his tenure in Chicago. He wouldn’t be at this crossroads now if the Cubs had given him the multiyear contract he sought at the end of 1999, but they offered only a one-year deal. He took it rather than pursuing a longer deal elsewhere.
Axelrod says the Cubs’ reluctance to commit themselves to long-term contracts reflects the organization’s eye on the bottom line. Executives such as MacPhail find themselves facing so many difficult decisions because Tribune Co. insists on annual profits.
“There are some teams that don’t look at the dollars, just don’t care,” Axelrod said. “The Yankees are in that group, maybe L.A, maybe Baltimore. Most of the rest of the teams have budgets that they really try to stay within. Some owners expand that. Cleveland, Atlanta, Colorado, if they see a player out there who will help them, they’re willing to expand the budget. There are teams on the other end of the spectrum that just can’t do it–Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Montreal, San Diego.
“Somewhere in there are teams that could do it but won’t. The Houston Astros have gotten a new ballpark but the owner [Drayton McLane] is not going to expand the payroll over $60 million. That’s his right, but don’t say, `I can’t [spend].’ Say, `I won’t [spend].’ Frankly, I put the Cubs in that category. They could spend more, but they won’t.”
MacPhail’s current budget is believed to be in the range of $65 million to $70 million. He has about $45 million committed to 14 players, including five who are due raises through salary arbitration. He has added outfielder Matt Stairs, third baseman Bill Mueller and right-hander Julian Tavarez already this winter and is pursuing free-agent pitchers Mike Hampton and Turk Wendell, among others.
Under those constraints, MacPhail couldn’t justify throwing another $5 million at Grace, who last year hit .280 with 11 home runs and 82 RBIs. He also is committed to finding room for products of the much-improved farm system.
Before trading for Rondell White last July, the Cubs had only one regular among their position players who was not in his 30s. That was stop-gap third baseman Willie Greene, who was 29.
Korean Hee Seop Choi, 21, is the Cubs’ first baseman of the future. He hit .298 with 25 homers and 95 RBIs between Class A and AA last year, helping West Tenn win the Southern League championship. He was named one of the best prospects in the just-completed Arizona Fall League.
Choi, who has 757 professional at-bats, could use one more year of minor-league seasoning. Rather than use this window for a Grace farewell tour, a non-contender like the Cubs might be wiser to use it to audition 26-year-old Julio Zuleta.
While Zuleta was never more than an obscure presence on the bench, his OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) for 30 games with the Cubs last year was higher than Grace’s–.886 to .823. In the last three seasons, from Class A all the way to the big leagues, the 6-foot-6-inch Zuleta has hit .312 with 68 homers and 309 RBIs in 404 games.
Those are hitters’ numbers.
“Based on his play the last few years, plus how he handled himself up here, he has earned the right to play here,” MacPhail said. “How much he plays will be determined by [manager] Don Baylor and how well he plays. He has earned the opportunity to be a part of the ballclub.”
Grace has averaged 174 hits over the last five seasons. He would have to maintain that pace for another five seasons to reach 3,000 hits. He is determined to give it a try.
Scouts say he has lost a little bat speed in recent years, but nobody says he’s at the end of the line.
“He’s a poor man’s [John] Olerud,” an NL scout said. “He plays defense well, although his range is a little limited. If somebody needs a first baseman, has some power already in the lineup, this guy would be a pretty good fit.”
Grace’s leadership skills provide contributions beyond raw numbers.
MacPhail knows all about how good Grace is in the clubhouse. But there’s nothing intangible about the Cubs’ .372 winning percentage over the last 269 games.
“We’ve done that and tried that,” MacPhail said when asked about Grace’s leadership. “We’ve found we were still in last place. If you really want to get better, you’re always going to have to take some chances–improve the pitching, let younger players play. If we do have a position with some depth in the upper levels of the minors, it’s first base.”
Goodbyes are never easy.
