Tired of watching Jose Contreras pitch inconsistently, George Steinbrenner pushed for and was successful in trading the Cuban refugee to the White Sox yesterday for right-handed starter Esteban Loaiza. The Boss wanted Randy Johnson but when he couldn’t get the Big Unit, Steinbrenner settled for what he believes was the next best thing.
Steinbrenner has been on his Inner Circle for weeks about the shape of the Yankee rotation and bullpen, with Contreras the focal point of the first area and Felix Heredia the second.
“George got tired of Contreras, plain and simple,” said a source, who hinted that Yankee scout Bill Emslie, a close confidant of Steinbrenner, convinced The Boss this was a deal that could help the Yankees.
Loaiza, who makes $3.5 million this year, can be a free agent at the end of the season but that hardly matters to the Yankees, who made the trade thinking that Loaiza is a better October option than Contreras.
The Yankees also will give the White Sox $1 million this year, $1 million next year and $2 million in 2006. Contreras, 32, makes $7 million this season, $7 million next year and $8 million in 2006.
Contreras, 32, was 8-5 with a 5.64 ERA in 18 starts for the Yankees. Signed to a much publicized four-year, $32-million deal in 2003, Contreras leaves with a 15-7 record as a Yankee and the label of never living up to the hype.
“We got a pitcher with more experience,” Joe Torre said of the 32-year-old Loaiza, who has pitched for the Pirates, Rangers, Blue Jays and White Sox in a 10-year big league career that reached its zenith last season when he was 21-9 for the White Sox and finished second in the AL Cy Young voting. This year he is 9-5 with a 4.86 ERA in 21 starts and was a member of Torre’s AL All-Star staff in Houston.
“We will see,” Torre said about how the deal will be judged. “He has more experience and has had a couple of good years. Maybe we stabilized our staff.”
While they were able to land a starter, the Yankees couldn’t do anything about their bullpen. Nor could they move Kenny Lofton, who drew interest from Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Of course, deals can be made this month if players clear waivers but that gets tricky. And the Yankees are close to signing free-agent first baseman John Olerud with Jason Giambi on the DL with a benign tumor.
While the Yankees were informed Friday by the Diamondbacks that Johnson wasn’t coming to The Bronx, there was a sliver of hope in the Yankee universe that as yesterday’s deadline approached the Diamondbacks would have no place else but The Bronx to dump Johnson and the $22 million left on a contract that runs through next season. Yet, at 1:30 yesterday afternoon that hope expired when Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo said Johnson was staying in Arizona.
“Randy Johnson will remain a Diamondback, which has always been our choice and desire,” said Colangelo, killing a trade to the Dodgers. “I will have more to say about it Monday.”
According to a Yankee official, Steinbrenner was disappointed in not getting Johnson but not angry because Johnson didn’t go to Boston, Anaheim or any other possible October foe.
While it’s true the Diamondbacks saw little in the Yankees’ prospects, they also asked for Javier Vazquez to be part of any deal that also included Eric Duncan, the Yankees’ top low-level prospect.
Once the Yankees said no to trading a 28-year-old pitcher for a hurler with a bad knee and who will be 41 next season, there was very little dialogue between the Diamondbacks and Yankees.
The inability to upgrade the left side of the bullpen won’t hurt the Yankees until October. They tried hard to get Eddie Guardado from Seattle, but the Mariners wouldn’t give him up. Seattle was willing to trade lefty reliever Mike Myers but wanted too much for a one-batter specialist who hasn’t been throwing well lately.
Ricardo Rincon was a strong possibility until last Thursday night when two Oakland relievers were injured. That squashed an A’s-Phillies-Yankees trade that would have brought Rincon to the Yankees, delivered Lofton to Philadelphia and made an Athletic out of infielder Placido Polanco.
