Renteria Contract Gives Cardinals Another Challenge
Rick Hummel
02/03/2004
The tumult over whether the Cardinals need to take out a second mortgage to pay Albert Pujols obscures the contract situation of the Cardinals' next most indispensable player, shortstop Edgar Renteria. Renteria's contract will be up after this season and, unlike Pujols, he can walk away.
Renteria, 28, who had 100 runs batted in, hit .330 and stole 34 bases in 2003, will receive about $7.5 million this year in the option year of a multi-year deal. It seems reasonable that Renteria, with another strong year, will jump into the $10 million or more class.
Manager Tony La Russa is not unaware of how important the Renteria matter is.
At the Winter Warm-up, La Russa said, "I listened to all the furor over Albert and there was way too much negative connotation about his comments."
La Russa was referring to Pujols' saying he would not give the Cardinals a hometown discount.
"In Albert's case, his comments can read differently and fans can take them the wrong way," La Russa said. "We definitely want to be careful that Edgar doesn't get in the same bind."
In a perfect world, said La Russa, the Cardinals would be able to retain Renteria, Pujols and anybody else. "People say the system works," said La Russa. "Well ... Look at Oakland. (Miguel) Tejada is in Baltimore in his prime and (Jason) Giambi is in New York. That doesn't show me anything" about the system working.
Like Tejada, who also doesn't have a strong command of English, Renteria hasn't received the same nationwide attention as Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Jeter. But, with the exception of Rodriguez, La Russa rates Renteria with the rest. "He's getting there, when you talk about the whole game," said La Russa. "I don't know if he's the home run hitter like some of those guys are but he sprays the ball well and runs the bases better than any of them."
It isn't lost on Renteria and Pujols that several Latin players who comprised the bulk of the Cardinals' bench strength are gone. Eli Marrero was traded to Atlanta. Miguel Cairo, Eduardo Perez and Orlando Palmeiro signed as free agents with the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay and Houston, respectively. A year and a half before, Placido Polanco, one of Pujols' closest friends, was traded to Philadelphia. This winter, second baseman Fernando Vina signed with Detroit. But La Russa doesn't believe that the absence of the Latin players will hurt Renteria and Pujols.
"We haven't discussed it with them and we haven't discussed it as an organization," La Russa said. "We didn't make a conscious effort to have that much of a Latin influence on our team. We looked at our needs and the guys available and very often they seemed to be filled by guys with Latin backgrounds. "They have a special feel for the game. They play it non-stop, 12 months a year."
Given more time, the Cardinals might well have matched or exceeded offers these players received from other teams but they had held back, not wanting to use all their money on bench players when they were seeking something else.
"At that point, we were really hoarding all our money to get pitching," said La Russa. "We really didn't have much of a choice. "But that same process has gone the other way. You look at needs and the guys available and all of a sudden, we've got more African-Americans. Last year, we only had Kerry Robinson. But now we've got Reggie Sanders, Ray King, Greg Vaughn, Ray Lankford, Marlon Anderson. ...
"Guys like Edgar and Albert are really committed to winning. As long as they understand what the process is, professionally we'll be all right. Personally, we're going to miss all those guys. They were fun to be around. "But we can establish the same kind of relationships with the new guys that are here."
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