For White Sox, A’s, a Little Goes a Long Way

Rebuilding? The Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics are providing a low-payroll blueprint, proving, to this point at least, that a team in the tenement area of the payroll rankings can be competitive--and even more in the case of the White Sox.

Chicago has the second-best record in baseball and a surprising and commanding lead in the American League Central--a division long dominated by the Cleveland Indians.

In citing the competitive disparity and need for a new economic system, management likes to point out that no team from the lower half of the payroll rankings has reached the playoffs in the last five years.

The A’s and Cincinnati Reds almost did it last year, however, and now the A’s and White Sox have shots.

“This does show what quality baseball management and player development can accomplish,” Sandy Alderson, the commissioner’s executive vice president of baseball operations, conceded. “The problem, however, is that these situations are ephemeral.

“While you can accomplish your development goals over the four or five years it may take, those accomplishments can vanish in a year or two, based on salary increases and arbitration and the like, so there are two elements.

“The first is to get clubs in position to compete.

“The second is to allow them to do it over a longer period of time by finding the revenue sufficient to keep their players under contract.”

Employing what Alderson called the “Cleveland model without the same revenue base,” the A’s have wrapped up most of their home-grown nucleus with multiyear contracts, buying out the early years of arbitration and free agency, while facing the crucible over the next year or so of trying to re-sign Jason Giambi, who is eligible for free agency after the 2001 season.

The White Sox, meanwhile, have begun to negotiate multiyear deals with some of their key young players, according to General Manager Ron Schueler, who estimated that his $31-million payroll--about the same as the A’s--would climb $10 million to $15 million next year through inflation alone, even if there were no major roster additions.

Of course, Schueler didn’t get past the trade deadline without making two major additions, acquiring designated hitter Harold Baines and catcher Charles Johnson from the Baltimore Orioles Saturday night.

Despite Chicago’s need for pitchers, Schueler went for offense because he calls the pitching market about the worst he has ever seen.

With Cal Eldred (10-2) out for the season because of an elbow injury, the White Sox are carrying five rookies among their 12 pitchers and face the possibility of playoff pressure with the inexperienced Jon Garland, 20, and Mark Buehrle, 21, in their rotation.

Then again, the Sox are a year ahead of schedule anyway.

“All along, I thought we’d be in position to make a good run in the second half but that 2001 would be our year,” Schueler reiterated. “We obviously came a little quicker than I thought.”

The blueprint has been chronicled.

Dissatisfied with a group of older, slower and lethargic players, the White Sox included Wilson Alvarez and Roberto Hernandez in that “White Flag” trade with the San Francisco Giants in July ‘97, subsequently permitted Albert Belle and Robin Ventura to leave as free agents, and rebuilt through the draft, trades and international signings--such as that of Venezuela’s Magglio Ordonez, a budding superstar.

“You need some breaks along the way, but certainly the draft is your only chance unless you’re [New York Yankee owner] George Steinbrenner and can spend, spend, spend,” Schueler said.

“I don’t know if we’ve provided a blueprint, but everybody in baseball likes to talk about four- and five-year plans. I take pride in that we’ve had this success in only three years.”

Of course, as Alderson noted, the White Sox and A’s haven’t won anything yet.

“The goal is not to finish over .500,” he said. “The goal is to make the playoffs and go all the way. At the same time, there’s no economic system we can adopt that will solve the problems of every club in baseball.”

Alderson believes it is inevitable that one or more clubs will have to move--just as it is inevitable that the system will have to be changed to help correct the competitive imbalance. He scoffed at the contention that there has always been disparity.

“This disparity is much deeper and more potentially devastating than ever and has really only been a problem since about 1993 or ‘94,” he said. “To me, the golden age was from about 1970 to 1992 or ’93 when you had Kansas City, Minnesota, Oakland, New York, St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, San Diego, the Angels, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Boston and a lot of other teams make the playoffs. For people to say [the disparity] has always existed is to omit about a quarter-century of baseball.”

Now the A’s and White Sox are trying to break through from the back of the payroll pack, hoping to become the first team or teams in five years to reach the playoffs from the lower half of those rankings.

Asked about that, Schueler laughed and said, “I guess there’s a lot of pressure on us.”

The real pressure, of course, will come later, trying to maintain and retain what he has created in a difficult economic environment.

“A large part of what we’ve been trying to do is develop a bunch of young guys we could bring up together as the nucleus of a team we can keep together,” Schueler said. “We don’t think our future is just 2000. We think it’s the next four or five years.”