As Stocker Goes, So Go The Phillies Shortstop Plays Like He’s Worth The Long Haul

Every once in a while, a baseball team telegraphs its proposed direction in a way that’s so clear and unmistakable that it could be outlined in neon.

If only batters found signals from the third-base coach as difficult to miss.

One of the fascinating decisions the Phillies will make this off-season concerns their shortstop situation.

And which direction they turn will be more than a telltale sign of their intentions. It will provide an unmistakable fingerprint, a DNA link to the organization’s innermost thinking.

If they keep Spokane’s Kevin Stocker, the only logical assumption is that they believe their second-half surge is more than a mirage, that they have at least a chance to field a reasonably competitive team in 1998. After all, Stocker has once again established himself as the kind of steady middle infielder contending teams treasure.

The fact that he’s batted .304 in the second half gets the headlines but it’s his solid defense that the insiders notice. And he’s only 27.

If the Phillies think they’re close, they must keep Stocker even though he figures to be in line for a substantial raise from the $825,000 base salary he’s being paid this season.

Let’s suppose, however, that when the season-ending powwows take place, the Phillies look at themselves in the mirror and decide that they still have a ways to go and that scaling back the payroll is a priority.

At that point, paying Stocker somewhere around $1.5 million will become decidedly less appealing, especially with Desi Relaford available.

Can Relaford be as good as Stocker someday?

Maybe.

Would he be as good next year?

No way.

So the decision the Phillies make here should be a pretty good tipoff as to what their real agenda is.

The scoop

The word out of Cleveland is that Indians general manager John Hart was ready to fire manager Mike Hargrove last Sunday but changed his mind after talking it over with owner Richard Jacobs. Jacobs apparently told Hart to do whatever he thought was best but Hart decided Hargrove at least deserved to finish out the year.

Jose Canseco has a clause in his contract with the Athletics that guarantees him $4.5 million next year if he gets 142 more plate appearances this season. You may bet the ranch that he won’t get them.

All-time home run king Hank Aaron, just back from a trip to Japan, predicts it won’t be long until there will be a truly international World Series. “I believe it will happen in five years, maybe a little longer,” he said. “There is no question there will be big-league teams in Japan, Mexico and other places around the world. There are not that many cities (in the United States) that can support a team.”

It sounds as if Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, a Tampa resident who has been an ally of the expansion Devil Rays bid to get out of the A.L. West, has gone about as far as he’s willing to go. “Expansion is important, but expansion teams are not the most important thing in baseball right now,” he said. “These teams were dying to get in, they wanted to get in and we got them in. Now they can’t be the total reason for reorganizing the whole game.”