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TORONTO — About the money? Of course it's about the money. If it wasn't about the money commuters wouldn't be wondering how they'll get to work if there's a transit strike - or why gas companies seem to be able to factor in every economic cataclysm into the price of gasoline a week before it happens.
And let's be honest: if it wasn't about the money I would most definitely be in southern Europe right now working on becoming the next Nick Hornby instead of watching a freakin' baseball game on a beautiful afternoon and getting ready to go to stinking Orlando.
Frank Thomas was granted his unconditional release Sunday by the Toronto Blue Jays and that's all right and proper. He was not placed on waivers. There was no attempt to trade him.
Getting rid of Thomas saves the Blue Jays from paying his $10-million (all figures U.S.) option for next season, but they are still required to pay the pro-rated portion of this year's $8-million (all figures U.S.) salary, which is about $6.7-million.
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"We got a great year out of him last year and this year he was scuffling a little bit," said Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi. "This is a situation where I don't think you want to let it stay around. You just want to deal with it. It's a situation where you want to do what's fair to him and what's fair to us."
Thomas knew when he signed last winter that agreeing to an option year for 2009, that would kick in if he made 1,000 plate appearances over the first two years of the contract, that the year wasn't guaranteed. Dude, it's why they call it an "option." And the Blue Jays knew that by putting themselves in that position, they could have found themselves paying a 40-year-old designated hitter $10-million - that the odds were very good that at some point, either in 2008 or 2009, the Big Hurt would act his age and they'd have to swallow great gobs of money.
And so that happened. After being told on Saturday that he was not going to be the designated hitter any more, Thomas acted suitably outraged.
"I see it as something else is going on," Thomas said. "We'll see how that plays out. You know what's going on and I know what's going on. We'll see how it plays out. I'm just a little frustrated right now. There are some things going on around here this year that I haven't been happy about."
Sunday, Thomas and Ricciardi met at the Rogers Centre just after 8 a.m.
"We had a great conversation and I just said: Look, if your role's going to be diminished here you're not going to be happy. What do you want to do? He said: 'I don't really want to be here if I'm not going to play.' At that point he said: 'If you want to give me my release that's fine.' I said: 'What do you want?' He said: 'I think I want my release if I'm not going to play.' Pretty amicable."
Ricciardi told Thomas that he didn't need to stay for the afternoon's game against the Detroit Tigers. The Blue Jays called up catching prospect Robinzon Diaz, who will join the team Monday, and Ricciardi said there was a chance injured third baseman Scott Rolen, who started his injury rehabilitation assignment Sunday - could be up with the team before next weekend.
Thomas, who is batting .167 with three home runs and 11 runs batted in, had gone 1-for-14 on the Blue Jays current homestand. His last crack at keeping his spot came Friday when he went 0-for-3 against a left-handed pitcher he has owned throughout his career, Kenny Rogers. Thomas is a notoriously slow starter - he hit .250 last April and a woeful .193 in May but still led the team in homers (26) and RBIs (95). But this year has been different.
He made contact ... the ball just didn't go very far. And Friday night, Thomas was so hunched over in his batting stance that the Tigers radio crew - who had seen a great deal of Thomas over the years - made constant note of it. Thomas was cheating on the outside pitch, raising a veritable white flag.
Under terms of Thomas' contract, the slugger only needed another 304 plate appearances to guarantee his option year. Now, any team that signs Thomas is free to negotiate a new contract with him and make no mistake: Thomas, who has 516 homers, wants to play. "I want to play until I'm 41, like all those guys I played with like Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk," he said this spring.
So what to make of all this. First, forget about it being an issue in the clubhouse. Thomas was a benign presence on clubhouse life, clearly looking out for No. 1 but not in a bad way - doing it the way all future Hall of Famers have done when they play out the string. He wasn't a drag on anybody, but neither was he going to go out of his way to light a fire. There are advantages to being Larger Than Life (TM), and, well, who among us, right? It's a big deal if Roy Halladay is angry. Or Vernon Wells or Aaron Hill. Thomas ... not so much.
As for the financial implications? Signing Thomas doesn't seem to have stopped the Blue Jays from doing anything they wanted to do. The team also saved $1-million in bonuses for being on the roster this year.
Vernon Wells, Aaron Hill and Alex Rios all signed lengthy extensions after Thomas' contract. The free agents that Ricciardi has really wanted to bring in - Gil Meche, in particular - or re-signed (Ted Lilly) turned down the Blue Jays not for money but because they preferred the Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs, respectively. The biggest deal that wasn't made - Rios for pitcher Tim Lincecum - had nothing to do with Thomas' salary. Neither did the deal that was made, Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus.
It's hard not to say that signing Thomas wasn't a reach. But remember, at the time Ricciardi wasn't certain that he'd get Wells locked up and was concerned about Glaus's simmering health issues. Rios was no sure thing then, either. Ricciardi thinks of a teams' offence as a whole, and his concern at the time was trying to ensure the team had right-handed power lying around in case a move was necessitated involving one of his other righty hitters. Thomas seemed to be his best option - and he only cost money, not a player in return. This was a realistic outcome and, yes, it was all about money. Thomas didn't put up enough good numbers to keep the bad numbers away.
