A frustrated Roberto Alomar all but said farewell to the White Sox on Friday.
After hearing the Sox had lowered their latest offer $1 million, the 12-time All-Star took it as a sign that he no longer is wanted on the South Side.
“I want to stay in Chicago,” Alomar said from his hotel room in Tokyo, where he is vacationing. “I love the team and the fans. My brother [Sandy Jr.] is there and I’d love to get my 3,000th hit there. But you want to play where they give you the respect you’re looking for.”
All along, sources said Alomar sought a two-year deal worth $6 million, a seemingly reasonable sum for a 35-year-old future Hall of Famer who was paid $8 million last season.
But early Friday, the Sox’s best offer was $1 million plus $2 million deferred (over an unspecified period) without interest, lowering the actual value to perhaps $2.5 million.
Later in the day, Sox general manager Ken Williams told Alomar’s agent, Jaime Torres, that the Sox were lowering their offer to $1 million plus $1 million deferred for 2004.
“It’s important to understand that an offer is only an offer until you reject it,” Williams said. “Then it’s off the table. If a player wants to revisit it after one week, two weeks or a month, circumstances can change dramatically–sometimes it’s in your favor, sometimes not.
“Just because they don’t understand that, it’s not my problem. I have some other things going on. There are other possibilities out there.”
Williams’ reduced offer to Alomar could be a sign the general manager thinks he still has a chance to sign ace right-hander Bartolo Colon, despite Anaheim’s reported four-year, $48 million offer.
“I don’t want this to come down as I’m trying to get Robbie on the cheap or that I’m disrespecting him,” Williams said. “It’s truly a case where that’s all we can offer because I’m trying to put this team together in its entirety.
“If I didn’t respect Robbie Alomar, I wouldn’t have called him in Puerto Rico [in October] to ask his opinion on some of the managerial candidates.”
There’s another issue.
Both Williams and Alomar said they informally agreed to a one-year, $3 million extension during a discussion on Aug. 30.
The Sox were in Detroit that day and Alomar had to miss the game because he had the flu. Williams was also under the weather, and when he went to the clubhouse to get some medicine, he began discussing with Alomar ways that Hall of Fame athletes have extended their careers.
“We talked about Rickey Henderson and Jerry Rice; it was a very casual conversation,” Williams said. “He expressed a desire to want to stay [with the Sox]. I’m a straightforward person: I said, `Let’s play the year out. This is not the time to talk about it.’ I told him I wouldn’t be able to match what he was making ($8 million).
“He said, `Well, it’s not going to take that. What about half ($4 million)?’
“Then he threw out another number ($3 million) and said, `Yeah, I’m serious. Call Jaime. Get it done.’
“I did [call him] and it didn’t [get done]–end of story.”
Alomar recalled it differently, saying it was Williams who pushed the one-year, $3 million proposal.
“He said: `What do you think about that?'” Alomar recalled. “I said, `Let me talk to my agent.’ I let my agent take care of my business, that’s what you pay your agent for.”
Alomar said it was “unprofessional” of Williams to try to pin him down on a contract extension while he was sick and his agent was not present.
Said Torres: “It doesn’t make sense for a player of Robbie’s caliber and experience to agree to something without consulting with his attorney. I’ve represented Robbie for 12 years. He always runs stuff by me.”
When Torres and Williams spoke late in the season, Torres said the $3 million offer came with a hitch–$2 million would be deferred without interest.
As for Williams’ unorthodox strategy of discussing the contract extension with Alomar, Torres said: “Hopefully he won’t be successful doing that with any of my clients.”
Williams defended that practice, acknowledging he discussed a two-year extension with Tom Gordon, who later signed with the Yankees.
“In couple of rare instances, I have done that,” Williams said. “I have done that and I have immediately followed it with a phone call to the agent to let him know about the conversation.
“But it has never been initiated from this angle. You’d be surprised by all the things players say: `Hey, Kenny, I need this or I need that. When are you going to call my agent?’ Half the time they’re joking around.
“But I love the communication with the players. They’re our employees. And, hey, if we don’t have the right to talk to our employees, what [rights] do we have?”
Williams also has the right to cut ties with Alomar and hand the second-base job to the talented but unproven Willie Harris, who started just seven games at second base last season.
“Willie’s going to be a player, man,” Williams said. “I know sometimes fans and people want a guarantee. We heard that when we brought up the kid with the funny name (Magglio Ordonez) and put him in right field.
“They said, `C’mon, that’s not a big-league name!’ And now it’s a chant [at the ballpark] and I’m criminal No. 1 if I trade the guy.”
Alomar, meanwhile, is ready to move on to his seventh team–and fourth in the last three years.
“I’m the one who always talked about Ozzie [Guillen] and wanting to play for him,” Alomar said. “But sometimes things are not meant to be.”
Torres said five teams have inquired about signing Alomar, including the Yankees and Cardinals.
Said Alomar of the Sox: “Hopefully both of us made the right choice.”
