Part 3 – 1987-88: A Frenzied Offseason, A Wild Finish
Several teams jumped right into the free agency frenzy almost before the Twins were done celebrating the franchise’s first title since 1924 and Minnesota’s first of any kind since the Lakers had been there; and even they’d had lots of disappointments in the ‘50s. Carl Pohlad, already 72 years old, was the man of the hour, and Calvin Griffith remarked that he’d done what Griffith could never had done with the money he’d poured into the team.
In Jack Clark, the Yankees found a DH whom they felt could really put them over the hump. He would also play right field quite a bit, first base to spell Mattingly, and even some left. They were incredibly excited about him and what he could bring to the team. They’d come very close in years past, but now they were sure they had a winner. When asked about Winfield being Series MVP for the Twins, Steinbrenner said, “Not everyone can star in New York; it takes a special type of player. Jack Clark is that type.”
The Twins would fall to second, as the man they’d traded, Allan Anderson, would have a breakout year for the Yankees, quickly becoming one of the staff leaders. Anderson in 1988 drew comparisons to Ron Gruidry – which was fortunate, because the Gator was clearly getting old fast; ’88 would be his last year. Anderson would be part of a 93-win Yankee team, however, that won the division by 5 games.
Paul Molitor was highly sought after following a .353 batting mark. The Yankees had lost out on Bob Horner to the Royals the year before, since he had more chance to play first there and be on a winner; they finished 1987 in the upper 80s in wins, a few shy of the Twins.(1) Teams had shared information on who was seeking whom in ’87, but Molitor was highly sought after by the Yankees as well – they still hadn’t solved their third base issues, and Steinbrenner wanted to go all in. He also sought Dennis Martinez heavily.
Martinez would enjoy being back in the American League, but he also thought the Yankees were rather old. Truth be told, the A.L. West seemed to be where the best pitchers were. Or the N.L. West. Brett Butler was going to the Giants, and they looked mighty good. Then, the Pirates looked like an up and coming team; they’d finished just above .500 and tied with his Expos. He’d be back in the U.S., too.
The Twins had a third baseman in Gary Gaetti and had just spent a lot of money before, so Molitor looked at the Tigers most heavily in addition to the Brewers. The loss of Kirk Gibson in ’86 and Jack Morris in ’87 had deeply hurt the Tigers, and Tom Brookens and Lance Parrish were gone as well. However, with a few different players, the aging Tigers could make one more push for a World Series. Besides, Dennis Martinez was in their crosshairs as a pitcher they wanted to sign, after having signed Doyle Alexander to replace Jack Morris the previous year.(2)
Molitor heavily considered the Tigers, even with Martinez returning to the Expos. He reasoned that the Tigers had good prospects such as Smoltz, and they were by no means finished as a team. He would be close to the area he knew best, and the Tigers could use him in a few positions, at first, third, or DH; maybe even a bit in the outfield. Yes, Milwaukee was good and he knew he might regret it, but the Tigers had lots more money without having Morris or Gibson last year; and Gibson the year before. They and the Brewers had tied for third in ’87.
In retrospect, it didn’t matter. The team that he had signed with, whether Detroit or Milwaukee, would have likely finished in a tie for second with Boston, 5 behind the Yankees, and then slipped after that till the end of his three-year deal. The Yankees were clearly the class of the division in 1988, and nobody seemed to care the Yankees were mostly really old.
The Expos were glad to have re-signed Martinez, but they soon found themselves listening to trade offers. They were 30-45 at one point. Nixon returned back in early June, though, and his return, once he started hitting, did help ignite them somewhat, as they went 45-43 the rest of the way. Montreal’s owners considered that if they played him a little less often in ’89, and added more punch, they could begin to make moves like the Twins had, hoping to show fans they really wanted to win. Going for bargain basement players, while it had netted them players like Martinez and Nixon and others, was clearly not a long-term fix.
The Dodgers were loved and hated. They had signed Kirk Gibson and Donnie Moore in ’86 and Raines in ’87 but hadn’t been very close to the top in ’86 before finishing 84-78, 5 games back, but with a clearly aging Donnie Moore in ‘87.
One look at Orel Hershiser’s record showed Gibson and Raines were among the only players who had given the team much offense. After a 19-3 1985 he had a poor ERA (3.71) but a 16-11 record in ’86, then in 1987 he went 21-10 with a 3.02 ERA before his magical 25-7 in 1988. Pedro Guerrero had been injured a fair amount in ’86 and ’87 - he’d be traded for John Tudor early in ’88. But, they were loved because they hadn’t signed others, and had worked trades to improve the team instead in ’88. In fact, as they raced toward the top, some said that this proved they’d “learned a valuable lesson,” that building with a lot of free agents wasn’t the way to go, but instead signing 1-2 important ones was, a la the Tigers in ’84 and twins in ’87.
. An outfield of Gibson, Raines, and Mike Davis, with Mike Marshall at first base and utility players such as Ken Landreux and Mickey Hatcher (Hatcher was released by the Yankees in May of ’87) led an offense that made a Cy Young winner out of Hershiser but with Hershiser not really needing them to do so. The youthful-looking Hershiser sang hymns in the dugout and represented the “real Dodgers” who had built through the farm system.
Yes, these Dodgers scratched and clawed their way to an NLCS win versus the Mets, where Hershiser relieved and won a game and then won the next day on no rest. Donnie Moore was frustrated that he hadn’t been asked to do more in the NLCS, but he’d been replaced as the closer by Jay Howell in spring training and moved to set-up, and was simply a role player by the end of the ’88 season. Still, he did make a World Series, pitching 2/3 of an inning.
Ironically, it was not the Yankees but the Athletics they faced – the team with whom they’d traded Bob Welch for Davis and Alfredo Griffin. The Athletics had won the pennant in 6 games and had demonstrated that, in the words of one writer, “Like 1979 after a couple years of Yankee dominance, free agency won’t ruin things. Small market teams can do very well if they build the right way today,” he concluded.
When Kirk Gibson homered off Dennis Eckersley to win Game 1 of the Series, and the Dodgers won in 5, it was a high point for baseball. Hershiser’s 63+ straight scoreless innings streak was another.(3) He would lose it at the start of next season but still go 20-9 in 1989. However, there were private rumblings as the 1988 offseason unfolded.
As Bart Giamiatti came into office as Commissioner, there was a desire by owners too get salaries under control. The White Sox were about to move to Tampa, with the Brewers having to choose whether to remain in the East, where they were now comfortable with the rivalries, or move back to the West, where the Twins could be the rivals and where fans would be more familiar with their divisional foes; many Chicago A.L. fans had already made plans to start going to Brewer games 90 miles away, despite it being Packer country for football. They eventually chose to move to the West, partly because Molitor had been given a substantial raise to sign with Detroit and hence they didn’t feel they could contend in the East in ’89, partly because with a balanced schedule, they played every team close to the same number of games, anyway. So, fans would still see the same clubs.
Owners pushed Giamatti to take action to somehow prevent the spiraling salaries before more teams had to move, and some even said that contraction could occur. Dave Winfield’s bad back would keep him out of the 1989 season(4), so even the Twins were antsy about the rising salaries. They signed Jack Morris through 1991, but were concerned that they might not be able to keep Viola after his 1988 Cy Young season. And, the Expos were getting worse with fans seeming growing uninterested at times; especially when hockey season started.
Two other cities merited watching, too.
The Mariners, without collusion, had seen their shoestring that the team ran on get worse. They chose not to sign a few minor free agents in 1985 and 1986, and then in 1987, George Argyros sold the club, only to purchase the San Diego Padres later.(5) Joan Kroc, widow of the late McDonalds founder, had wished to get out of baseball for some time, and the deal did increase Argyros’ holdings. However, he ran the Mariners on such a shoestring that it was feared the Padres would be worse.
Not only that, but the Mariners, while improving a bit, still didn’t really want to keep their free agents; they had let Mike Moore go before 1989 and during the season, with the Expos a couple games under .500 in early June but still having a bit of life, the Mets finally relented and gave up Kevin tapani along with a couple others to get Langston.(6) The Expos would end up in last, 71-91, despite being only a few games back at the end of July, and while Randy Johnson (and Brian Holman) looked good at times for them, many began to lament that they hadn’t tried to win, though that August and September showed that it wouldn’t have helped. As for New York, they finished two games behind the Cubs, 92 wins to 90.(7)
Meanwhile, Commissioner Giamiatti had been distracted from possibly investigated pete Rose and gambling by a more serious problem. Owners had decided to investigate steroids instead, sensing that this would be one way to keep costs down; prevent players from getting huge numbers like they might be able to bulking up. The American league MVP, Jose Canseco, for 1988 was at the top of the watch list. While rumors swirled around Rose in inner circles, the owners pushed the steroid and other drug angle enough Giamatti simply quietly pushed for Rose to be fired, which he would be with the Reds’ slump, to be replaced by Lou Piniella as Cincinnati manager for 1990.(8)
Giamatti might have continued and investigated Rose the next year, but he died of a heart attack late in the ’89 season, and his successor, Fay Vincent, had more pressing issues. After the Athletics beat the Giants in the Earthquake Series, rumors came out faster and faster about Canseco and steroids, and in return for forcing open the training camps which owners had locked players out of, Vincent vowed to work with the Players’ Union to implement testing.
Otis Nixon had improved as a hitter, but he wasn’t as good as he would be later in Atlanta as a starter, because of the cold weather versus Atlanta’s Launching Pad stadium. The Expos began to seriously investigate other cities, especially Miami, whose bidders had offered a huge amount of money for the team soon before the 1990 season.(9)
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(1) Horner might have signed with New York but the most likely is Kansas City, which did try hard to sign Rick Sutcliffe in 1985. The reasoning is this – the offense had fallen off quite a bit in 1986, and rookie star Kevin Seitzer wasn’t sure to claim third in 1987, allowing George Brett to move to first. Even if he did, Brett would likely be hurt for a time as he was often injured for several weeks a year. So, Horner could spell Brett at first or play first more often with Brett at third. He would also DH for them.
(2) He wouldn’t replace Gibson and Morris; and, of course, OTL he was there anyway for the last couple months. The Tigers would win about 90. However, they dealt a highly touted prospect for him, so they likely wanted him. And, with Morris costing so much more money, having just won 20 in ’83 and again in ’86, it makes sense they’d go for the lower priced Alexander to replace him.
(3) Certainly a lot, and more than the 59 of OTL, because with Raines with the Dodgers rather than the Expos, they likely are scoreless in the game before he started his scoreless innigns streal (his hit was in the middle of the 2 runs scored in one inning of a 4-2 Dodger win over montreal where the streak began). He may not need that 10th inning to get to 59 as he did OTL in a game against the Padres – he likely wins instead of getting a no-decision, as he does one other time instead of losing. It depends when he started the string versus the Mets the game before, then. Since he lost 2-1 OTL, though, figure it’s a no decision and maybe even a loss OTL – perhaps Moore lets in the deciding run – and then he just starts the string at the start of the next game. So, 7 straight shutouts with 63 scoreless innings pitched. The better records before and after indicate better offensive support because of Raines and Gibson in ’86 and ’87 and raines in ’89 plus some minor pieces being different and perhaps even a relief sppearance or two more.
(4) Likely a bit worse because of the Metrodome’s turf, though he may DH for part of the time he likely misses 10-15 games that he didn’t OTL then, too, but it evens out as the Metrodome is a better hitters’ park in 1987 for him.
(5) He attempted this OTL but failed to consummate a deal.
(6) The Mets had been trying, according to one source, “for six months” to make a deal. It’s close to the same deal for Viola – who is not traded OTL – but they try to keep Aguillera and move him back to the rotatin for a while.
(7) Langston did okay, but not great, the second half of the season. He helps them to a few more wins, but they also have a struggling Aguillera there, because they wouldn’t give up too much since they don’t know if they can re-sign him. They had a glut of starters.
(8) They likely do poorly even without a major Rose distraction.
(9) No rumors of expansion would have begun to surface TTL, whereas they had by that time OTL, though no clear choice may have been made to expand yet. These investors, who would soon pour their efforts into landing an expansion club, would instead put more effort into landing the Expos – or some team – without expansion becoming a focus.