In a showdown between Frank Thomas and Jerry Reinsdorf, Thomas came back with nothing but a promise.
Thomas returned to the White Sox’s camp Tuesday with nothing gained from his six-day absence and plenty of work to do to repair his battered image. Though Thomas received an oral promise from Reinsdorf not to “embarrass” him by invoking the “diminished skills” clause in his contract that could make Thomas a free agent, he got nothing in writing and will have to take the Sox chairman at his word.
Thomas said that’s good enough for him.
“He’s a man of his word,” he said. “I’m not worried right now. He has made no [contract] changes, he has promised no changes. He said we’re going to work on it. The bottom line is he knows what he has here with me, and hopefully we can get this done.”
Reinsdorf declined to speak on the Thomas situation, issuing a statement in which he said no contract demands were made by Thomas and no changes were made. It’s a matter of semantics, however. Though Thomas may not have made any “demands,” he did request a salary bump of around $4 million per year. Reinsdorf replied with a resounding “no,” and Thomas didn’t push it.
After making a public apology to fans and his teammates, Thomas went about trying to clear up what he considered misconceptions about his contract squabble. He said the perception in the media that he was “greedy” was incorrect and that he only wanted Reinsdorf to “clarify” the clauses in the contract that he thought were unfair.
“I do look like the poster boy for greed over the last weekend, but that is not the case,” he said. “I’ve never been greedy. I’ve had a couple of opportunities to be the highest-paid player in the game. I didn’t want to be there. If you get a copy of the contract, you know I deferred a lot of the money to help this team sign other players.”
Thomas will defer annually $4.1 million of his $9.9 million deal through the next six years. He said the reason he deferred all the money when he signed at the end of the ’97 season was to leave room in the payroll for the Sox to re-sign free-agent Robin Ventura and also pay Albert Belle. Both players were gone one year later, as Belle exercised an out-clause to make more money with Baltimore and Ventura left for the Mets.
The clause in Thomas’ contract that most upsets him is the “revised payment right” from 2002-2006. If the Sox think Thomas’ skills have diminished, they can revise the deal to pay him a $250,000 base salary per year, with annual deferments of $10,125,000. Thomas could then become a free agent.
“I deserve a guaranteed contract,” Thomas said. “I read in the paper that people complaining about money–they should go from year to year to be paid. That’s basically what I’ve been doing. Two years from now, if I’m not a superstar MVP-type candidate, then [the Sox can say] my skill has diminished. It’s one of those things that needs to be taken care of at this time. This was never a holdout. It was taking days off until we got things cleared.”
The gentleman’s agreement in which Reinsdorf would not invoke the clause helped save face for both sides. Thomas didn’t want the potential embarrassment of having a “diminished skills” label hanging over his head, and Reinsdorf did not want to set precedent and alter a player contract, especially after holding firm against Bulls stars Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen when they were considered underpaid.
The Thomas affair was an instance of Chicago sports fans agreeing with Reinsdorf’s stance, which had to be gratifying to a man who has taken many shots during his two decades as chairman of the Bulls and White Sox. “I’ve been dealing with [criticism] for over a year and a half,” Thomas said. “Hopefully it motivates me to have another great season. There’s no animosity. You learn to take the punches in life. I will continue. I have a team to come and help lead that really needs me. The coaches said it was quiet as a pin around here because no one knows what’s going on. I can live with that. I’m going to move on and be myself.”
White Sox manager Jerry Manuel, employing the “What, me worry?” philosophy that he has repeated since the start of training camp, said he’s not concerned the Thomas incident will linger and be a distraction.
“I thought we’d built a good foundation for the most part,” he said. “The foundation is still in place. If we can’t handle little trials, it’s not as good as I thought it was. If you could put a positive spin on it, it’s kind of a test for us. If we can’t handle this, then possibly we can’t handle the Central Division again.”
