How can he keep us on tenterhooks like this? Two columns now since Jose Cruz became Barry Bonds's caddy in San Fran, and still Richard Griffin hasn't slammed JP for not getting something from the Giants in trade. Possibly this is a sign that Rich is starting to understand the new baseball economy, about a year later than the Blue Jays front office. Or maybe this revealing line from this column tells the story:
The reader e-mail when we lamented the fact Jose Cruz Jr. was not offered a contract ran heavily in favour of the club and against Cruz.
You just know that had to be tough to swallow.
Anyway, for the most part Rich is concentrating on the two guys headed for arbitration with the Jays, Kelvim Escobar and Shannon Stewart. As longtime Toronto baseball fans know, this has not traditionally been an organization that likes to go to the mat with its players in front of an arbitrator, and JP has shown no signs he welcomes these kinds of fights either. Indeed, Rich indicates that Escobar and the Jays are closing in on a one-year, $4 million deal, which frankly would be pretty sweet for Toronto -- it's cheap for a Proven Closer, even an overrated one, and would make Kelvim easier to deal at the deadline if he has a good first half.
But Shannon is the story here. He and the team are $2 million apart in their opinion of what he should earn this year, and that really is a substantial divide to cross. Rich, as usual, does his best to paint the Jays in a bad light, arguing that Torii Hunter -- a year younger than Stewart -- recently received a four-year deal from the Twins that raised his annual salary from $2.2 million a year to $8 million per. Nice implied logic there, but it overlooks the fact that Hunter is a centrefielder and a spectacular one at that, while Shannon, game as he may be, is a mediocre left fielder with a popcorn arm.
More significantly, it overlooks the fact that perhaps unlike Terry Ryan, JP has his eye firmly fixed on the future. No organization has the outfield prospects Minnesota can boast: Michael Cuddyer, Michael Restovitch, Alex Romero and Lew Ford, to name four, and perhaps Justin Morneau in an emergency. The two Michaels are considered among the premier bats in the minors, while Romero projects as a five-tool centrefielder. Under those circumstances, do you sign a guy to a four-year, $32-million deal whose lifetime OBP is .315 and whose last two "breakout" seasons have been accompanied by a 64/243 BB/K ratio? Well, I wouldn't, but I'm just a caveman.
Rich allows that Gabe Gross and J-F Griffin should be ready or close to ready to take over left field if and when Shannon moves on to natural-grass pastures after 2004. And he should know that there's very little chance of striking a reasonable deal with Stewart's agent, Jeff "I engineered the Mondesi-Green trade" Moorad, who doubtless wants his client to test the market after this season regardless of how the hearing goes. But you get the feeling that Rich sees this development as he sees most others in the Ricciardi regime: another nail in the coffin of the Blue Jay Way, another legacy of the past administration tossed aside.
Well, as Monty Burns would say, hard cheese: Shannon is a fine hitter better suited for DH, but that's not a role he's willing to play in Toronto. He's not terribly durable, he's lost a step or two through injury and tentativeness, and he's probably plateaued offensively. There are cheaper alternatives with higher upsides coming through the system. I think it' will soon be time to say goodbye, and the forthcoming arbitration hearing -- which, for my money, the Jays will win -- is the start of a breakup that will eventually serve both sides better.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20030130102753999