Major League Baseball announced Friday that incoming commissioner Rob Manfred was retaining the services of outgoing Commissioner Bud Selig as Commissioner Emeritus. Later that day ESPN.com reported that “sources told ESPN’s Buster Olney” Selig would have a salary of “about $6 million” a year.
In its report, ESPN said Pat Courtney, MLB’s chief spokesman, said no compensation details would be revealed but that “$6 million a year is inaccurate.”
Based on what I have been told, Courtney was being truthful. A high-ranking official said Selig will receive $10 million a year for five or six years and that his emeritus title would be dropped after three years. Final details will be voted on by the owners at their quarterly meeting next month, the official said.
If the erroneous $6 million-a-year salary raised eyebrows in and out of baseball, what will $10 million a year do?
Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, the owners can pay the 80-year-old Selig as many millions as they want. It’s their money. They’ve given it to players old enough to retire; why not an old commissioner who is retiring in a month? The NFL is paying Paul Tagliabue and the NBA is paying David Stern in retirement. Selig has done more for baseball owners than Tagliabue and Stern have done for their owners.
Furthermore, you can’t expect Selig to work for nothing, can you? It hurts enough to take a pay cut from more than $25 million a year to $10 million.
Manfred’s appointment of Selig comes as no surprise. I signaled it more than a year ago when I concluded an Oct. 3, 2013 column:
Another person suggested that Selig would be an eminence grise, which is defined as a powerful adviser. Selig most likely wouldn’t be paid $25 million for acting in that role, but what other sport has ever had an eminence grise?
I elaborated on the plan in a column four months later:
Under the plan outlined by those people, Manfred will be the commissioner with Selig not far away, serving, one person said, as eminence grise.
That is not a baseball term that can be found in “The Dickson Baseball Dictionary.” But the American Heritage Dictionary defines eminence grise (greez) as “a powerful adviser or decision-maker who operates secretly or unofficially.” The dictionary says the French version is “the power behind the throne.” French or English, that will be Selig.
In yet another layer of authority, the owners are expected to create a committee of three or four owners to serve as an advisory board for the new commissioner. That committee will make the structure of authority more strongly owner oriented.
The committee has yet to be named, but there is that January meeting. An almost certain appointment to it will be Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the Chicago White Sox. Reinsdorf tried to block Manfred’s election but failed miserably. However there’s that old saying about keeping your enemies close to you.
As for Selig, emeritus works as well as eminence grise. The MLB news release announcing his appointment said:
… Selig will be available to advise Manfred and to assist with special projects as Manfred begins his term as Commissioner.
Manfred said: “Commissioner Selig has had an unparalleled career of decorated service to the National Pastime, and this role will allow the game to benefit from his unmatched institutional knowledge, experience and relationships. I could not ask for a finer mentor during this transition process, and I am grateful that Commissioner Selig will continue to be available to me as a resource.”
The news release does everything but refer to Selig as MLB’s eminence grise. You can call him E.G. for short.
The release didn’t say and Courtney didn’t respond to an e-mail, but I think it’s safe to assume that besides earning $10 million a year, Selig will get to keep his 30th floor office overlooking Lake Michigan in Milwaukee.
PRELLER’S PADRES MAKEOVER
A.J. Preller was dealing so quickly last week he very likely wouldn’t have been able to deal baseball cards any faster. At the age of 37, the San Diego Padres’ general manager isn’t far removed from the baseball-card business.
But now, in his first off-season in his job, when Preller makes a trade, it includes players, not cards. And Preller made a bunch last week. In the space of three days, he acquired 12 players and relinquished 15.
Preller, who became the Padres’ trademaker the first week of August, almost looked like he was stocking an expansion team, revamped the outfield and added starters at two other positions as well as a starting pitcher.
The idea was to resuscitate a comatose offense. Preller was with the club long enough to witness it first hand, but there were the numbers for emphasis.
The Padres, who somehow finished in third place in the National League West, 11 games ahead of Colorado and 13 ahead if Arizona, were last in N.L. production in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, runs, hits, total bases, doubles and home runs.
Lodged in a division with the two-time division champion Dodgers and the World Series champion Giants, Preller created a new outfield of Matt Kemp, Wil Myers and Justin Upton. He acquired a third baseman, Wil Middlebrooks. He obtained two catchers, Derrick Norris from Oakland and Ryan Hanigan from Tampa Bay in an 11-player, three-team transaction, but he traded Hanigan to Boston for Middlebrooks.
Preller has more trades to make because, if for no other reasons, he has a surplus of outfielders. The way he has operated this off-season, he should have no trouble finishing the job.
YANKS HAVE GERMAN, GERMEN AND EOVALDI
The Yankees had their own flurry of player moves last week. Among their deals, they got a right-handed pitcher named German and another right-handed pitcher named Germen.
Domingo German comes from the Miami Marlins and is a 22-year-old Dominican who was born only a few weeks before Bud Selig became acting commissioner.
Gonzalez Germen, purchased from the Mets, is 27 years old and also a native of the Dominican Republic.
For the Yankees, the key in the Marlins’ trade was another right-handed pitcher, Nathan Eovaldi, and they gave up a starting infielder, Martin Prado to get him. Prado had been set to start at third base for the Yankees, but when they signed Chase Headley the other day, Prado figured to be the starting second baseman. Now he will start for the Marlins.
Going to Miami with him will be David Phelps, who compiled a 15-14 record in three seasons with the Yankees as a starter and a reliever.
The Yankees wanted Eovaldi badly enough that they were willing to give up Prado and Phelps for him. He will be 25 in February and has three years of major league experience. With the Marlins last season he had a 6-14 record and a 4.37 earned run average in 33 starts.
The Yankees are not concerned with his won-lost record. “They love him,” said a man who is familiar with the Yankees’ thinking. “They think Larry Rothschild” – their pitching coach – “can do good things with him. The entire baseball staff was in favor of making the deal.”
The Yankees plan to put Eovaldi in their starting rotation, which sorely needs a good young starter.
The futures of German and Germen are uncertain.