Martinez offered hometown discount
CLEVELAND -- Back in that long ago time when Pedro Martinez was still a beloved member of the Olde Towne Team, before the opinion shapers and survey polls and chat boards decided that he epitomized all that is greedy and vulgar about the grand old game, there was some discussion about whether he would become the highest-paid player ever to wear a Red Sox uniform.
This was in the spring of 2003, when he was coming off a 20-win season in 2002, a spectacular response to those who wondered whether the shoulder injury he had sustained the previous year was the beginning of the end. Discussions surrounding a new, long-term extension were couched in part by this: He was due to be paid $17.5 million in 2004 if the club exercised its contract option, and with Manny Ramirez drawing $20 million per annum, there was some thought that Martinez would aspire to eclipse his slugging teammate as the most handsomely rewarded member of the club.
When negotiations broke down on a new deal that April, and the club exercised the 2004 option, Martinez insisted he never asked for Manny money, or anything close. He was willing to take a lot less, he claimed, and that people would be "shocked" to hear what he was willing to take.
Well, a year later, it is now coming out what Martinez was willing to take to remain in a Sox uniform. According to a baseball source with direct knowledge of the negotiations, the proposal he made to the Sox did fall far short of Ramirez money. He didn't ask for a five-year deal, as had been widely speculated.
What he asked for, according to the source, was a three-year deal, plus an option, that would have paid him between $2 million to $3 million less than he is being paid this season, and $500,000 less than Randy Johnson's contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The source was vague on whether Martinez was willing to take less than the $15 million Johnson was paid in 2003, or the $16 million he is being paid in each of the next two seasons, but it was still a sizable reduction.
Maybe that falls far short of "shocking" for an audience benumbed by such staggering figures, but it should give pause to those who wish to describe Martinez as trying to squeeze every last cent out of the Sox. It remains to be seen what Martinez will be able to command on the open market this fall, but what he was willing to do at the time was, indeed, accept a hometown discount. In a business where players measure themselves against their peers, Martinez was willing to cede the distinction of being the game's highest-paid player to a 40-year-old pitcher eight years older than he was, and at a number -- given his track record -- that could be termed eminently reasonable.
That figure obviously was too high for a Sox management determined to make their superstar players accede to "market corrections," or leave town, no hard feelings. Some would call that sound business, that the Sox simply can't tie up so much of their payroll just in Martinez, Derek Lowe, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek, and, for good measure, David Ortiz. Others might ask where the Red Sox plan to find pitchers, a shortstop, a catcher, and DH better than they already have.
The source repeated the claim Martinez made last year that the only reason the Sox exercised his $17.5 million option was because it was the only way the club could get his contract insured in 2003 and 2004, a charge Sox CEO Larry Lucchino denied at the time.
What has happened since? The source insists Martinez has never been offered another figure, that the Sox came back and asked for a voidable contract, like the deal the Detroit Tigers struck with free agent catcher Pudge Rodriguez that voids the contract if his back problems flare again, and Martinez and his agent, Fernando Cuza, absolutely refused to go down that road. John W. Henry, according to Martinez last week, asked for time to explore his insurance options, but still no offer.
Martinez had promised reporters that he would update them on negotiations as soon as he knew something substantive, which led to his announcement that he planned to file for free agency after the season. The timing of his remarks last Friday did him no favors in the arena of public opinion, but there is no question he believes he was misled by the team, according to the source, because they never did make another offer.
The players almost always take a beating in these matters, but consider this: Garciaparra was offered a package $12 million less than he'd been offered the previous spring, and only after discovering the Sox were pursuing Alex Rodriguez. Lowe was offered no better than a two-year deal, at a figure believed to be in the $8 million range. Varitek, like Martinez, was offered a voidable contract, even in the absence of a known preexisting medical condition. Ortiz is on a one-year deal.
Call the players greedy if you must, but make no mistake: The Sox are playing hardball.
