Tracking Spring Rosters No Small Task
Heathcliff Slocumb took one look around his new home and scrunched up his face. He recognized some of the players in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse, sort of.
“Most of the guys you see in the league in passing,” Slocumb said. “Not too many guys are going to stay with one team, so you’ve seen the other guys around.”
Putting all the names and faces together with the new teams, though, isn’t so simple this spring.
Some of it is easy. Roberto Alomar moved to Baltimore and Paul Molitor is playing for his hometown Minnesota Twins.
Rickey Henderson signed with San Diego, Jack McDowell went to Cleveland and Andy Benes joined his two brothers in St. Louis. Dwight Gooden and Tim Raines are with the Yankees, Benito Santiago and Todd Zeile signed with Philadelphia.
OK, but how about former All-Star relievers Rob Dibble and Doug Jones? What of Tim Wallach and Chuck Carr?
And the dealing isn’t necessarily done yet - outfielders Deion Sanders, Darryl Strawberry and Kevin Mitchell are still available as free agents.
New Cincinnati manager Ray Knight knows his team has signed former Reds stars Eric Davis and Chris Sabo, but he’s not sure what to expect.
Davis, 33, played sparingly for Detroit in 1994 and missed all of last season because of a neck problem, and Sabo has bounced around recently.
“I remember what Eric was,” Knight said. “You tend to remember what they were and what they could do.
“When I mentioned Eric Davis’ name, I kind of got real excited. And I looked at his last couple of years and I couldn’t find anything on him,” he said.
The Cardinals, Orioles and Yankees made the most changes, including managers.
Baltimore brought in its former second baseman Davey Johnson as the manager and hired Pat Gillick as its general manager. Gillick wasted no time in assembling new talent, signing free agents Alomar, Randy Myers and B.J. Surhoff and trading for starting pitchers Kent Mercker and David Wells. They also signed Bill Ripken as a spare infielder, and gave him a spring locker next to his big brother, Cal.
Orioles catcher Chris Hoiles knows he’ll have to learn how to work with the rebuilt pitching staff.
“I think that takes care of itself,” he said. “Their experience and my experience combine as we get to know each other in game-type situations.”
New Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is surrounded by some familiar faces. He brought pitching coach Dave Duncan with him from Oakland, and former A’s Dennis Eckersley, Todd Stottlemyre, Mike Moore, Rick Honeycutt and Mike Gallego are in camp.
Because the artificial turf at Busch Stadium has been scrapped for grass, St. Louis wanted some power to go with its speed and signed home-run hitters Ron Gant and Gary Gaetti.
“They certainly have got to get used to playing with each other, but with Tony, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Houston manager Terry Collins said.
The Yankees hired Joe Torre as their manager and Bob Watson as their GM, and added Tino Martinez, Joe Girardi, Kenny Rogers, Mariano Duncan and Jeff Nelson, along with Gooden and Raines.
But not every team spent big bucks to make changes.
The World Series champion Atlanta Braves didn’t acquire anyone of consequence. General manager John Schuerholz offers this reasoning.
“If you don’t win the world championship, you have to do that,” he said. “You have to make more dramatic moves when you’re chasing a team rather than being the team.”