COULMN: Sheffield is hurting his trade value with all of the whining
Who can we believe?
Gary Sheffield says he never wanted his contract renegotiated.
The Dodgers say Sheffield demanded a new contract or a one-way ticket out of town.
Either way, something has to give.
Though his teammates are denying Sheffield’s dispute with Dodger management is distracting to them, one has to believe the saga hasn’t gone unfelt. But Sheffield’s good standing with his teammates, while important, is
the least of his concerns. His remarks made him the poster child for spoiled super-stars, something baseball fans tolerate less with each new poster.
Most damaging, however, is the effect Sheffield’s remarks may have had with the Los Angeles front office. The two parties have all but declared war on each other.
Today’s super stars ought to know by now that it’s not wise to bite the hand that signs their paycheck. Yet players from both leagues seem not only eager to bite that hand this spring, but to chew off the whole arm.
What concept of a contract do they not understand? If this was the NBA, I could believe it. The majority of NBA players today are drop out of school before they can enroll in courses like Understanding Your Contract and Ethics 101.
This is major league baseball, however, and the majority of the players are still somewhat educated. So why are so many players having such a hard time honoring their contracts?
We all heard the sob-story Frank Thomas’s told last week as he tried to justify his grumblings.
“I didn’t know what the contract said. My agent died in an airplane crash, so he’s not here anymore to read it to me each night before I go to bed. I’d be happy to play if someone would just hold my hand – and give me another $100 million.”
Did we actually hear that right? Did Thomas really say he didn’t know what was in the contract?
Hello, Frank! Were you present at the negotiations? Were you there when you signed the contract? (Yes.) Well, you have to abide by what’s in it. That’s what a contract is. It’s an agreement that says the White Sox will give you an unearthly sum of money if you merely put on a uniform and swing a bat a few times a game.
Thomas has it made. He doesn’t even play defense most of the time. He gets to sit in the dugout and play Tetris and drink lemonade until it’s his turn to bat. Yet he thinks he needs MORE money.
“But the market has gone up, and now I’m underpaid.”
Gimme a break. After two miserable years by Thomas’s standards, the Big Hurt rebounded last season and lived up to his nickname. His actions this spring have earned him an alternate nickname: the Big Boob.
The thing with Sheffield is more of a soap opera than Thomas’s pleas for attention. Sheffield swears he never asked for a trade, yet the Dodgers insist he did.
“I never demanded a trade,” Sheffield told ESPN’s Peter Gammons. “I never asked to renegotiate my contract. I told (the Dodgers) back on Nov. 30 that I wanted to be a Dodger for life.”
Sheffield insists he merely wanted an extension, and offered to defer a lot of money so the team could sign future free agents like Chan Ho Park.
The Dodgers, on the other hand, continue to shop Sheffield to anyone within earshot, all the while placing the blame squarely on the outfielder’s shoulders.
The biggest dilemma facing both Sheffield and the Dodgers isn’t a matter of credibility. For teams like the Mets, Yankees and Braves, the caution in trading for Sheffield isn’t over whether he will be a negative clubhouse influence. Professionalism breeds professionalism, and these clubhouses are three of the most professional in the business.
No, the most intimidating factor surrounding a Sheffield deal is his huge contract – $30 million over the next three years with a club option for $11 million in 2004. In the age of Alex Rodriguez’s 10-year, $252 million contract, $10 million isn’t a bad price for a guy that hit .325 last season with 109 RBI and a career-high 43 home runs. However, for teams with payrolls already pushing the $100 million mark, a contract like Sheffield’s is hard to swallow.
For teams like Cincinnati, Oakland and Seattle, who are trying to compete while keeping their payrolls relatively low, Sheffield’s contract is nearly impossible to swallow. Furthermore, no one is going to trade a budding super star like Andruw Jones for a 32-year-old with just a handful of good years left in him.
It’s no longer a case of who you believe in Los Angeles. Now it’s a matter of who, if anyone, the Dodgers can sucker into a deal.
Casey Hobson welcomes comments at hobsonhut@hotmail.com