Burnett burnt out?

By Mike Berardino
September 6, 2002

FORT LAUDERDALE — If struggling Major League Baseball teams were looking for a Christmas bonanza in this new collective bargaining agreement, they will be sadly disappointed when they examine the final details.

This is not a lump of coal in their stockings, but it’s not exactly the bottomless bar of gold they were praying for either.

Local revenue sharing will increase by perhaps 50 percent over the next four years to a combined total exceeding $1 billion. Add in the X-factor of a payroll tax, which nobody but the Yankees will likely mess with, and the pie gets a little thicker for the game’s have-nots.

But how much thicker? Thick enough to give them the margin for error currently enjoyed by the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox and Braves? Thick enough to allow them to throw good money after bad players and get away with it?

Thick enough to turn Chuck LaMar into Brian Cashman or Dean Taylor into Dan Evans? Not even close.

Take the Marlins. Their $18.5 million check from local revenue sharing in 2001 should rise to about $23 million next year, based on the 60-percent phase-in plan demanded by the players’ union. That figure should jump to about $24.5 million in 2004 before maxing out at about $26 million in the final two seasons of this four-year labor deal.

Does that mean that the Marlins can keep the core of their roster intact, even with a whopping 12 players eligible for salary arbitration this winter? Probably not.

But if they choose to plow that extra money into the big-league roster—a big if not just in this case but across the majors without a minimum payroll—it might mean they can keep a Luis Castillo or a Derrek Lee when they otherwise might have let them both go.

"Will this deal save baseball in South Florida?" said a former Marlins official now working in a rival front office. "My guess is the Marlins will probably wind up with a little more in revenue sharing but not appreciably more. In the whole scheme of things, this is not a cure for all the problems that exist down there."

Marlins president David Samson refuses to say whether Friday’s deal means next year’s payroll will climb from its current $40 million, which is sort of scary when the projected 2003 figure for the current group is $52.5 million. In his defense, his small-revenue brethren are being just as vague everywhere else.

"There are no quick fixes in this game," said LaMar, the Devil Rays general manager. "It doesn’t matter what happened (with the new deal). … Hopefully, if revenue sharing is as it appears, it looks like the Devil Rays will benefit somewhat financially from that."

But that doesn’t mean they’re suddenly going to go on a 1999-style shopping spree. They remain committed to fielding a no-name lineup of kids until a rebuilt farm system can lift them to respectability in another two or three years.

New deal or not, the emphasis will remain, as it should, on sound baseball decisions and creative leadership. Intelligent clubs like the Twins and A’s will continue to contend with low payrolls just as clubs like the Rangers and Mets can find ways to finish last with $100 million player outlays.

"We’re all relieved and all happy," a middle-market executive said. "It sounds like we made some progress, but the devil is always in the details. Something that sounds great today may not be as great in reality.

"I think this helps but the bottom line is clubs still have to exercise some of their own self-restraint. They can’t be spending more money than they have. I’m not one to say the Yankees didn’t play by the rules. They did. But a lot of clubs in a lot worse shape tried to spend damn near like the Yankees, and that’s what caused the problem."

With clubs doing everything they can to stay south of the $117 million payroll-tax threshold, this will not be a good winter to be a free agent. Don’t be surprised if Cliff Floyd, Jim Thome and even Roger Clemens get far less on the open market than they might have received under the old system.

"I’ll be interested to see how the free-agent market shakes out this year," the executive said. "A lot of clubs are not going to spend. A lot of free agents on the upper end are going to be in for a rude awakening. The free-agent market is not going to be what it’s been in the past."

The executive cautioned that fans should not expect to see tangible evidence of increase revenue sharing overnight. A showy free-agent purchase is just one way to spend all that fresh jack, but it’s probably not the smartest way, not if you’re still years from contending.

"The end-all is not that all the money goes to player salaries," he said. "You can put it in player development and do what a lot of small-market clubs need to do. You can find better scouts. You can put it toward signing more of your draft choices and grow these guys.

"You can try to remain competitive like the Oakland A’s do with a young club. That’s fine, too. The money doesn’t have to go to a 32-year-old, broken-down middle infielder."

Fair enough. Just as long as the new money doesn’t line the pockets of a cynical billionaire.

Mike Berardino is the national baseball writer at the (South Florida) Sun-Sentinel. You can contact him by sending e-mail to mberardino@sunsentinel.com.