Wednesday, December 15, 1999
Do Reds have checkmate on Mariners?
Will Gillick lower demands now that Griffey has blocked deal?
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ANAHEIM, Calif. — While doing nothing in the waning hours before they left the Winter Meetings Tuesday, the Reds may have strengthened their position in the Ken Griffey Jr. trade talks.
Griffey's refusal to accept a trade from the Seattle Mariners to the New York Mets early Tuesday morning reinforced his stated desire to play only for the Reds if he switched teams. The center fielder's veto power is a contractual right of his tenure.
“Kenny has not changed his mind,” said Brian Goldberg, Griffey's Cincinnati-based agent. “It's the same as it has been for the last two-plus weeks. I don't expect him to have a change of heart.”
Now the baseball world must wonder whether Seattle General Manager Pat Gillick will call Jim Bowden, his Reds counterpart, to reopen negotiations. Gillick said nothing about the Reds but promised to maintain apparently futile talks with New York, which offered pitching prospect Octavio Dotel, outfielder Roger Cedeno and one of two relievers, Armando Benitez or Dennis Cook, for Griffey. “You just have to keep trudging along,” Gillick said.
When asked if keeping Griffey for the 2000 season, the final year of his contract, was an option, Gillick said: “I wouldn't say it's high on the list. It's a possibility.”
It's more than a possibility to Griffey. “Kenny's getting his frame of mind set to go back to Seattle,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg held out the slight chance that Griffey would sign a contract extension with the Mariners instead of becoming a free agent if he's not traded: “I don't expect him to return in 2001, based on family proximity and geography. But you never know.”
Bowden cordially refused to comment on the Mets-Mariners floundering when contacted by the Enquirer. He did address a small group of reporters that included writers from the New York Times and Seattle Times.
“If they had only one club to trade (Griffey) to, maybe they would have moved off their position,” Bowden said. “Maybe (Seattle) would have taken the best deal instead of getting only draft choices (as free-agency compensation).”
Griffey just might remain a Mariner through the 2000 season. Agents and club executives who know Gillick say he almost never moves substantially from his initial position in negotiations. As Bowden said, “We spent five weeks on this and made no progress.” Thus, Gillick is unlikely to drop his insistence that the Reds include Gold Glove second baseman Pokey Reese in any deal.
But if Gillick really wants to trade Griffey and the Reds remain the only option, the stalemate has to be broken somehow.
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