When Sammy Sosa officially becomes a Baltimore Oriole, probably sometime Thursday, the Cubs will have spent nearly $16 million to get rid of him.
As the players association approved the proposed trade Monday night and the commissioner’s office is expected to do the same Tuesday, financial figures that accompanied the deal were becoming more detailed.
So were the possibilities that this trade would be completed, most likely a week after serious discussions began between the Orioles and Cubs.
The holdup will be Sosa’s physical exam, which isn’t expected to take place until Wednesday, at the earliest, and nothing can be official until he passes.
On the other hand, Jerry Hairston Jr. took his physical Monday in Mesa, Ariz., and passed “with flying colors,” according to one Cubs source.
Financially, the Orioles come out better on the deal, although it might take a CPA to unravel the figures.
In the end, the Cubs will pay $12 million of Sosa’s $17 million salary for 2005, plus $3.5 million as a severance agreement left over from an old contract.
The severance does not come out of this season’s Cubs payroll because it already had been figured into previous budgets.
The Orioles will pay $5 million of Sosa’s salary for 2005, plus are responsible for the $4.5 million buyout of the option for the 2006 season. But the Orioles could also pick up Sosa’s 2006 option for $18 million, which is unlikely.
So the Orioles get Sosa for one season for a total of $9.5 million.
The Cubs get Hairston and two minor-leaguers in return and “save” $9.5 million of payroll on what they would have owed Sosa in salary and option buyout.
Nearly $2 million of that goes to Hairston, so they will still have $7 million to spend on another player. It appears Jeromy Burnitz is their choice, since Magglio Ordonez’s asking price is about $12 million a season.
A one-year contract with a mutual option for 2006 with Burnitz could be finalized when the Sosa deal is complete.
It’s a win-win situation for the Orioles, who are getting a player who hit 35 homers last season.
They also get Sosa at well below market price, and could try to sign him to an extension at below the $18 million salary figure.
If healthy, Sosa should easily match his Cubs home run total last season because Camden Yards has a hitter-friendly left-field wall and Sosa will be in a lineup with such proven hitters as Miguel Tejada, Rafael Palmeiro and Javy Lopez.
“[Sosa] feels fabulous about the situation,” agent Adam Katz told the Baltimore Sun. “There are not a lot of places he was willing to go, and [Baltimore] is his first choice, second choice and third choice.
“It’s a fabulous ballpark and fabulous division, and with that lineup it’s a good fit.”
