If Ken Griffey, Jr. wants to be a Yankee, the two-time defending World Champions are willing to at least talk trade with Mariners GM Pat Gilllick.
Asked about his reaction to the best player in baseball wanting out of Seattle and possibly landing in Pinstripes, GM Brian Cashman didn’t flinch.
“We are always interested in anything that makes us better,” Cashman said from Tampa, where George Steinbrenner’s Inner Circle completed the first of two days of meetings yesterday. “You never know.”
Before Yankee fans get high on visions of Griffey playing center field in The Bronx and Bernie Williams moving to left field, there are severe hurdles to clear. One, Griffey is still hacked off at Steinbrenner over the way he was treated when he was a kid at Yankee Stadium when his father, Ken Griffey, Sr. was a Yankee. Supposedly, Billy Martin wouldn’t let Griffey in the clubhouse on orders from The Boss.
Two, the Mariners are sure to want a bevy of young arms and that’s not a category The Yankees are loaded with. Then there is the money. Griffey was offered an eight-year deal worth $135 million in mid-July and turned it down.
Griffey, who will be 30 later this month, can be a free agent after the 2000 season. He hit .285 with 48 homers and 134 RBIs in 1999. In 11 seasons, Griffey has belted 398 homers and has the best chance among active players of breaking Hank Aaron’s all-time record of 755. *In other business, when the Yankees picked up the options on Paul O’Neill and Darryl Strawberry yesterday, the two-time defending World Champions plunked down their first investment for a three-peat next year and made sure big clubhouse influences returned.
“These were the first steps toward 2000,” Cashman said. “
O’Neill will be paid $6.5 million to play right field and Strawberry will collect $750,000 to be at least the left-handed designated hitter.
Considering where baseball salaries are and will go, the deals are good ones for the Yankees, who need shiploads of dollars to pay arbitration eligible players Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Ramiro Mendoza as well as re-signing Mike Stanton.
O’Neill, who will be 37 in February, had the worst year of his seven-year career in Pinstripes from a batting average standpoint since he hit .285. In the previous six seasons, O’Neill averaged .317 and never hit below .300. However, he did drive in 110 runs, second on the club to Bernie Williams’ 115. It was the third straight year O’Neill reached triple digits in RBIs.
While many people believe that this will be the final year for O’Neill, his agent Joe Bick left the door open yesterday.
“A lot will depend on what happens teamwise,” Bick said. “If they keep winning, he might want to keep playing.”
As for Strawberry, the $750,000 represents a $1.75 million cut from the $2.5 million he collected this past year when he only played in 24 regular season games due to a suspension for violating his substance abuse after-care program.
Still, Strawberry was in good spirits yesterday when reached at his Tampa home.
“I am happy to have the opportunity to get back playing a full season,” said Strawberry, who batted .327 with three homers and six RBIs in 24 regular season games and .333 (5-for-15) with two homers and four RBIs in the postseason. “I will be able to be in shape right away. I am going to start my workouts in December when I go to the complex every other day.”