Trade Rule Catch-22 For M's -- Griffey Maintains He Could Veto Deal Over Who's Involved
Rule XIX(a) Consent to Assignment
The contract of a player with 10 or more years of major-league service, the last five of which have been with one club, shall not be assignable to another major-league club without the player's written consent. -------------------------------
Rule XIX(a) of baseball's basic player agreement, better known as the 10-5 Rule, is a simple sentence. But for the Mariners and Ken Griffey Jr., it may take on complexity rarely seen in the history of the sport.
The Seattle club could face the possibility of trading its annual All-Star - who tonight in Atlanta will be named one of nine outfielders on baseball's All-Century team - if they cannot come to an agreement with him on a contract extension or come away believing he will sign later.
However, Griffey's promise to utilize the 10-5 Rule as it never has before would make the club's difficult choice to deal him, should it come to that, much harder.
Call it a Catch-22. Or, in this case, a Catch-24.
In the past, the few times the 10-5 Rule has come into play, the traded player has given a yea or nay merely to the team or the town to which his team wants to move him.
Griffey has all but said he would be willing to go to Cincinnati, Atlanta, Houston or Cleveland (he added the Mets during the season, but that was widely taken merely as a jab at Yankee owner George Steinbrenner).
But the center fielder added with a his trademark smile the last week of the 1999 season that he would apply the 10-5 Rule to the trade itself.
"Let's say the Mariners work out a trade with another team," Griffey said with a cackle. "I'd demand to see what players they were giving up. If I thought my new team was giving up too much, I'd say I wouldn't go."
He then uttered his mantra, that he wants to play for a team in a constant state of contention, "and if they give up too much, it might hurt their chances of being a contender."
Can Griffey do this?
The rule is ambiguous. Even Brian Goldberg, Griffey's agent, said so. "But while 10-5 does not state that the club has to tell a player what or who is involved in a trade," Goldberg said, "it doesn't say the player can't ask or does not have a right to know."
As Don Fehr, head of the Major League Players Association, put it: "The Mariners are not obligated to tell him anything, but Griffey is not obligated to give his consent."
The consensus is that Griffey can, that any player with 10-5 rights not only determines which teams he would play for, but how much they should pay?
Not surprisingly, Fehr gives Griffey total support.
"He has absolute veto rights and can condition it any way he wants," he said.
Two Mariner GM candidates acknowledged the player position.
"He's got the ability to say no for any reason," one said. He added the only recourse is putting Griffey in a situation where he doesn't say no, "in other words, get him signed."
"This is unique, intriguing," said another of Seattle's potential GMs. "He might even make a condition that he has to work out a long-term deal with the other club before he gave a final OK."
The twist in the situation is the lack of precedent. No player of Griffey's stature has ever been in a position to wield this power.
Scott Boras, an agent known to find twists in the rules, said, "You're usually talking about a guy in his 30s, with trade value limited by his age or his performance. It would take a special player to make this stand and Griffey is a pretty special player."
Mariner officials have not expressed their feelings on Griffey's unique slant on the 10-5 Rule.
"We have had no need even to look into interpretations of the rule," said team president Chuck Armstrong. "What we want to do, what we intend to do is sign Junior."
Yet when Griffey first brought up his unique slant on 10-5, the Mariners seemed reluctant to agree. The stance expressed by one club official was that there was no requirement to divulge names in a trade.
But there has been discussion, presumably heavy and undoubtedly involving all GM candidates, in the offices at Safeco Field. "If a player with 10-5 rights says he wants to know who's in the deal," said one baseball man close to the Mariners, "the chances of a team saying no are nil."
Will Griffey do this, if it comes to that?
"Yup," he said, laughing again but dead serious. "If I'm going to another team, I'll be out to beat the Mariners."
The biggest question: Can it, will it, come to this?
No one can say. Griffey's own best answer on whether he wants to stay: "Some days I do, some days I don't."
For two major reasons, the Mariners will at least take trade offers for Griffey and Alex Rodriguez, who has no 10-5 rights.
-- 1. They cannot let them go as free agents at the end of the 2000 season and risk getting only a draft choice in return.
-- 2. They cannot risk the distraction of having their two lead players in lame-duck roles. As one member of Seattle's hierarchy put it: "We saw what a mess Randy Johnson created in that situation. These guys would handle it better than Randy, but it would be a circus around them anyway, and we can't have that."
Seattle has made major eight-year offers to each, $250 million to $260 million combined. In addition, while the original offers took effect in 2001 with signing bonuses to bump salaries for 2000, the club also has offered to tear up their existing contracts and put the new deals in effect next year.
Still, both players insist on the need to see Seattle become a contender before they commit long-term. Boras last week said Rodriguez "would not talk economic matters with the Mariners or any other club until the end of the 2000 season."
Goldberg said Griffey's interpretation of the 10-5 Rule stems from the same rationale. "It's just like Alex or Scott (Boras) said last week; they wouldn't agree to sign a contract with a team that traded for Rodriguez, since they may have had to gut the team to acquire him, and Alex wants to play for a winner."
Griffey's agent said his man "definitely is not trying to be antagonistic. Kenny's not mad about anything concerning the Mariners. He knows they've done a lot for him over the years."
Goldberg summed up Griffey's position as well as it ever has been:
"On one side, there is the loyalty factor, the chance to play his entire career with one team. On the other, there is the geography and his desire to spend more time with his family at home. All of it is rolled into the strong need to be on a competitive team."
Which brings us back to Griffey's theory that any team which gives up proper value for Griffey - or Rodriguez - is going to be less competitive.
Which might be countered, as one strong player's-rights advocate stated it: "I wonder how any trade that brings you Griffey can make you weaker."
Seattle Times staff reporter Larry Stone contributed to this report.