MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Multi-year contracts on way out because of poor performances

This season has seen a staggering amount of bad contracts.
By LARRY STONE
THE SEATTLE TIMES
The age of wanton multi-year contracts in baseball could be nearing an end.
If the flagging economy doesn't do it, then the paltry performance of many of the players who were rewarded with huge deals in the profligate climate in the late 1990s should serve as a cautionary tale for owners.
Does the name Jeff Cirillo ring a bell?
The Mariners are still on the hook for the final two years of the four-year, $29.05 million deal he signed with Colorado and took with him to Seattle in last year's trade.
After this season, the underachieving Cirillo will still be owed nearly $15 million through 2005.
Appier leads the way
This season has seen a staggering amount of bad contracts that owners have been forced to eat, the latest of which was the $15.67 million that the Angels swallowed when they cut pitcher Kevin Appier.
That broke the record for the most money paid a player not to play, set earlier this season by the Tigers when they dumped Damion Easley with $14.3 million still owed him.
The Pirates released Kevin Young with $3.25 million remaining; Greg Vaughn was still owed $9.25 million when he was cut by the Devil Rays.
Then there's long-departed Matt Williams, owed $6.6 million by the Diamondbacks; Jeffrey Hammonds, owed $5 million by the Brewers; and Todd Van Poppel, owed $4.75 million by the Rangers.
That doesn't even take into account all the bad multi-year contracts in which teams absorbed the lion's share of the remaining cost in order to receive prospects in trade-deadline deals.
Detroit president Dave Dombrowski, who along with Tigers owner Mike Ilitch had to make the agonizing decision to cut Easley this spring, makes the salient point that the money is already committed, whether you have the player or not. Sometimes, it's better to admit your mistake and move on.
"You're generally going to be bringing up a minimum-salary guy, so you're only talking about $300,000 more," he said when the Tigers were at Safeco Field on the last Mariners' homestand. "You just have to say, 'OK, what do you do, keep putting someone out there who's not performing? Which way do you go?'
"You can't win either way. I'm sure anyone who releases guys like that are in a position where it's really the last thing they want to do, but it really comes down to, in their own analysis, that this just isn't working, and we're better off to make that second move."
Owners getting wary
Dombrowski believes the top-tier players will continue to get multi-year megacontracts, but that owners might be more wary of whom they reward in light of all the bloated contracts teams throughout baseball are struggling to get out from under.
"It makes you more aware of the ramifications of giving them [contracts] to people that aren't that certain level of talent," Dombrowski said. "The industry, as we all know, has gone through different waves. There were long-term contracts, then they went down to short-term. I don't know what wave we're in.
"The big contracts are still out there for the star players -- look at Jim Thome last year, and Alex Rodriguez -- but who you give them to is always something you analyze pretty heavily."
Wedge leads pack in security
Cleveland's Eric Wedge, the youngest manager in baseball at age 35, amazingly is the manager with the most security in the major leagues.
The Indians recently exercised their two-year club option on Wedge for 2005 and 2006, and added another two-year option for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
So Wedge, who has yet to produce two winning months as a major-league manager, has more security than Bobby Cox, Joe Torre or Tony La Russa.
Dusty Baker, Art Howe, Lou Piniella and Buck Showalter all have contracts that run, like Wedge's, through the 2006 season. But none of them have the two-year option beyond that, making Wedge the only manager with a contract that can keep him on the job through the 2008 season.
It's a testament to general manager Mark Shapiro's faith in the potential of Wedge, who managed in Cleveland's farm system before getting the Indians' job last October. With the youngest team in baseball -- 13 rookies on the 25-man roster -- the Indians have been kept out of the American League Central cellar only by the ineptitude of Detroit.
The truth is, many of the managerial stars this season have been the elder statesmen: Jack McKeon (age 72), Felipe Alou (68), Bobby Cox (62), Joe Torre (63) and Jimy Williams (60 in October), with credible jobs by Frank Robinson (67) and Lou Piniella (60 in two weeks).