Phillies GM Pat Gillick vents in this morning's Philadelphia Inquirer:
...with several multiyear contracts in place, Gillick has found a shake-up difficult.
"It's a challenge," he said. "Sometimes it prevents you from doing exactly what you want to do... . But when you have personnel that are basically in control of their fate, then you might want to do something, but before you make that move you have to get the approval of the individual."
He's referring to no-trade clauses. Thome had that right. So do rightfielder Bobby Abreu and leftfielder Pat Burrell. Catcher Mike Lieberthal also has veto power, but that's because he is a 10-year veteran who has been with the Phillies for five-plus years.
"Here's the thing," Gillick said. "I think, if you call a player an employee, and you're treated the same as the other employees, then I think you're willing to accept what the policies are of the company. Now, if you walk into the clubhouse and you know that everybody in there is on a three-year contract and nobody is being treated any differently, that's easier to accept as opposed to knowing there's a guy on a five-year [contract] with a no-trade [clause]. I don't believe in no-trades, and I don't believe in preferential treatment. The only preferential treatment I think a player should get is on the first and the 15th [when he is paid].
"... I don't like to see so much money in the hands of very few players. There are some guys who are more talented than others, and they should be compensated. I have no problem with that. But at the same time, there are other people on the team that need to be compensated, too."
Gillick is working hard to make the changes he feels he needs to make. He typically has been the first person to arrive at the office every day, and is on the phone late at night. Just the other night, he was on the phone at 1 a.m. with a scout.
"It all goes back to flexibility and what you can do," he said. "You know what you want to do. People say, 'Just do it.' Well, it's not that easy because you don't have control over all the pieces."
Past conversations Gillick has had indicate that he is quite interested in acquiring a starting pitcher and leaning towards going the trade route rather than the free agent route to do so. Apparently, he is finding making trades more difficult than he anticipated. While other teams are likely to be interested in Phils players like Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell, the size of their contracts make the takers few and far between, to say nothing of the no-trade clauses these two players possess.
Prediction: Look for Gillick to somehow/someway improve the starting pitching staff with a trade sometime this winter. That might not be going out on a limb, but Gillick is a future Hall of Famer that makes things happen. In his short time in Philadelphia, he's shown he doesn't let grass grow under his feet.
Prediction #2: Teams must offer their own free agents arbitration by December 7th if they are to retain the rights to negotiate with these players. It says here that very little will happen in terms of trades or free-agent signings by any team until it is determined who was and was not offered arbitration. If a player is not offered arbitration, then the team that signs him does not have to surrender draft picks. I think more and more teams are valuing their draft picks higher than they used to value them.
