Payroll still matters in the only major sport without a salary cap, but the Rockies have become baseball’s new standard of how to do more with less.
One of the disconcerting lessons for fans is this: Both of the Rockies’ playoff runs over the past three seasons were fueled by unpopular trades of expensive, veteran players.
Homegrown talent is the club’s foundation, but such trades also have become a key part of the formula. The Rocks’ front office has discovered that payroll can be constrained and vital new blood introduced by trading expensive veterans for inexpensive young players, assuming you pick the right inexpensive young players.
Two years ago, it was Jason Jennings for Willy Taveras, Taylor Buchholz and Jason Hirsh. The deal was unpopular with fans because it was perceived as a salary dump. But Jennings had an injury-plagued season, while all three of the young players contributed to the Rocks’ World Series run, with Buchholz and Taveras playing major roles.
This year it was Matt Holliday for Carlos Gonzalez, Huston Street and Greg Smith, a deal that was unpopular with fans because it was perceived as a salary dump, and because the players coming from Oakland were unproven, with the exception of Street.
After a poor first half in Oakland, Holliday lived up to his billing with a great second half in St. Louis, helping the Cardinals run away with the NL Central. Meanwhile, Street was crucial to the Rockies’ success, building the best save percentage in the league, and Gonzalez blossomed into what manager Jim Tracy calls “an electric player.”
Just as important from the Rocks’ perspective, Holliday is likely to earn at least $18 million a year as a free agent, which is the number he turned down from the Rockies. That’s almost a quarter of the $75 million player payroll the club started with this year. By contrast, Gonzalez won’t be eligible for free agency for another five years.
This is a tough pill to swallow for many fans, who don’t want to see their favorite players traded when they get too expensive. And the Rockies’ four-year, $72 million offer to Holliday showed they are willing to bite the bullet on a big number occasionally. Small- and midmarket teams previously known for doing more with less — Florida, Oakland, Minnesota and recently Tampa Bay — often can’t afford to do even that.
But trading a well-known veteran for a package of prospects is usually unpopular at the time, even if it turns out brilliantly. Maybe the best example was the Astros trading Glenn Davis, a power-hitting, two-time all-star first baseman, to the Orioles for three young players in 1991. Fans were irate. Three years later, Davis was out of baseball. The young players were Curt Schilling, Pete Harnisch and Steve Finley.
For the Rocks, these trades have done more than constrain payroll. They have changed a clubhouse chemistry that had grown stale. They have injected youth, enthusiasm and even idealism.
If Detroit holds off Minnesota for the American League Central crown, six of baseball’s eight playoff teams this year will be among the top 10 in player payroll: the Yankees (first), Red Sox (fourth), Tigers (fifth), Angels (sixth), Phillies (seventh) and Dodgers (ninth).
Two teams from the middle 10 made it — the Cardinals (17th) and Rockies (18th).
If the Twins (24th) come back to win the AL Central, one team from the bottom 10 will have made it.
So, yes, discrepancies in spending still play a greater role in baseball than other sports that try to level the playing field by establishing salary caps. This year’s bottom payroll, Florida’s $37 million, was only 18 percent of the top payroll, the Yankees’ $201 million.
Overcoming that handicap for small-market and midmarket teams is not easy. Oakland general manager Billy Beane was glamorized in a book on the subject, but the A’s haven’t made the playoffs since 2006.
Beane’s trade for Holliday was a failure, and he ended up doing just what Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd had done — trading the slugger for a package of prospects. One day, it will be interesting to compare the package O’Dowd got with the package Beane got.
The key to the Rockies’ strategy is the ability to evaluate nascent talent, whether in trades, the draft or the Latin American program. O’Dowd has assembled a front office that has hit more often than it has missed.
But you also can expect him to be criticized on a semi-regular basis for trading popular veterans for young players you’ve never heard of. That, too, is part of the plan.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297 or dkrieger@denverpost.com
