ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Vladimir Guerrero, one of baseball's longest-running and most riveting mysteries, isn't an explanation guy. So if you're looking to crack the case on why he spurned a lucrative offer from Baltimore and told the New York Mets "later," don't expect much more than a smile, some vague explanations and a shifting of his weight from one foot to the other.
"He's not going to comment on any other offers," Diego Bentz, an attorney from the office of Guerrero's agent, said shortly after Vladimir's official Anaheim Angels unveiling Monday afternoon. "Rest assured that if he's here, he's very, very happy."
Yeah, yeah, we don't doubt that for a moment. Five years, $70 million, twinkling new stars such as Bartolo Colon and Kelvim Escobar joining World Series holdovers such as Garret Anderson, Darin Erstad, Tim Salmon and Troy Glaus ... there are a lot of reasons he should be happy.
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| Arte Moreno's latest masterstroke is luring superstar Vladimir Guerrero to Anaheim.(AP) |
Angels general manager Bill Stoneman was one of them.
Asked Monday if he was surprised that the marquee free agent of this year's crop remained on the market through last week, Stoneman quickly answered.
"Yeah, I was," he said. "I really didn't expect him to last. I know -- and knew -- that budgets were tightening up around baseball from talking to other GMs and from the deals they were proposing.
"You'd talk about a deal, and everybody was trying to move money. Everybody was trying to move dollars to make room to sign guys like Vladimir. Other clubs, quite frankly, haven't been able to move guys they've wanted to move. It's been a stagnant market for high-dollar players."
The Montreal Expos reportedly offered Guerrero five years and $75 million earlier this winter, and everybody thought that the star outfielder might elect to remain with Expos GM Omar Minaya, who has been like a father figure to him.
After that, for the longest time, the choices were ... Baltimore. And Baltimore.
At the winter meetings in New Orleans last month, the Orioles appeared to have a deal all but wrapped up. Just before New Year's Day, they added a sixth year to their offer and made it worth $78 million. Even with the Mets making a last-ditch bid 10 days ago, everybody thought Guerrero would be a Baltimore Oriole.
"I thought he was," Stoneman admitted. "That was my perception. That's the one club you kept reading about. (Miguel) Tejada went there and got a very nice contract, Javy (Lopez) did. And Baltimore in the past had a pretty high payroll. I certainly gave that a lot of credibility."
But obviously, as it turned out, Guerrero would just as soon spend next summer de-fleaing dogs to playing for the Orioles. After keeping the Birds at arm's length for more than a month, Guerrero's representatives notified Stoneman last Wednesday, when he phoned to check on another of their clients (Rafael Palmeiro), that Guerrero was there to be plucked.
Stoneman, who already had signed free-agent pitchers Bartolo Colon and Kelvim Escobar and outfielder Jose Guillen this winter, immediately phoned new owner Arte Moreno with the news. The Angels made an offer on Thursday, and the deal was finished by the end of business on Friday.
"Time was never a factor," Guerrero said through his translator, Bentz, Monday when asked whether he ever dreamed it would be this deep into the winter before he signed. "I'm excited to be here. I'm excited about the result. This is where I want to be."
Not to make our friends in Baltimore feel even more scorned, but as Guerrero spoke from the stadium Monday, it turned out that it was the first day he had ever set foot in Anaheim.
Still, Guerrero has been to Los Angeles with the Expos several times, of course, his brother Wilton played for the Dodgers, and the fact that the Angels play on grass rather than turf was attractive to a man who missed significant time last summer with a herniated disk in his back. The fact that Anaheim's new owner, Arte Moreno, is of Hispanic descent and has been aggressive since taking control of the franchise last summer didn't hurt, either.
"There are several factors there," Bentz said. "How aggressive (Moreno) has been, and the fan base is really important, too. The fact that the owner speaks Spanish and Vladimir can communicate with him is another plus."
According to Bentz, there were two overriding demands that Guerrero laid out to his representatives: He wanted to play with a team that can win, and he wanted to live in a community in which his family -- he lives with his mother, Altagracia Alvino, part-time during the season and she plans on moving to Southern California with him -- will be comfortable.
The general feeling by those who know Guerrero was that he wanted to remain in the eastern United States rather than move west, given his ties to his native Dominican Republic and a home he has purchased in Florida.
The other line of thinking was that the shy and reclusive Guerrero preferred to remain in a small market such as Montreal rather than step into the limelight of a New York or Los Angeles.
But as Stoneman said, "You never know, when you make a call, what will be at the other end."
Guerrero's decision and Anaheim's coup is Exhibit A.
"This is Los Angeles," Stoneman said. "We have a pretty sizable Latino population. This is a good organization. This is a good team, and this is an organization that is adding the piece that will be a key element to the organization.
"You always try to put yourself in the other guy's chair, and I did that. If I was an agent, where is a better team for Vladimir Guerrero than the Angels? Where is it? This is probably the best spot for him. My only question was, hey, can I afford him?"
If Guerrero is sad at leaving Montreal, he didn't show it Monday.
"You know what?" he said through his translator. "The fans, my teammates, (manager) Frank Robinson, I've got a lot of respect for all of the guys. They're like family. I love the city of Montreal. But this is a new beginning. And unfortunately, their ownership situation was unresolved."
In the end, Alfredo Griffin, the Angels' first-base coach, turned into the club's lead recruiter at the behest of Stoneman. Griffin once managed Guerrero in the Dominican Winter League, and in baseball, as in life, you never know where your connections will lead.
"Alfredo's reputation is impeccable," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We know his baseball mind is incredible, and to anybody coming out of the Dominican Republic, Alfredo has been an idol since the days when he played in the big leagues."
Griffin and Guerrero spoke by telephone late last week, before the deal was done, and the importance of that conversation should not be underestimated.
"It was a very, very long conversation," Bentz said. "They went through everything. The clubhouse, the manager, the city. He was a motivating factor."
The Angels started Monday's news conference by calling it "perhaps the greatest press conference announcement in the history of this organization," and while only time will tell whether the hyperbole was accurate, it is clear that this is an organization on the move.
Moreno scored instantly with fans last summer when his very first official act was to lower the concession stand beer prices throughout the stadium, and he followed that up by whacking some ticket prices.
Now, with this winter's additions of Guerrero, Colon, Escobar and Guillen, Moreno seems too good to be true. My goodness. Where did this guy come from, Lourdes?
"A lot of people, I'm sure, think I'm very impulsive," Moreno said. "But I've been around baseball a long time, and there's nothing wrong with a little impulse."
It just sometimes gets a little confusing, is all -- not to mention, at times, a bit worrisome.
In Anaheim on Monday, one fan stopped Moreno and asked: "Does this mean you're going to raise beer prices?"
The owner got a good chuckle out of that.
So, too, did a very giddy manager.
"It's going to be really tough to challenge the positive reaction Arte got by lowering the beer prices," Scioscia joked. "This might come close, but I don't think anything will beat lowering the beer prices."
Just wait until April, when the fans get a load of watching Guerrero every day. The Angels drew three million fans for the first time in club history last summer.
With cheaper beer and Vladimir Guerrero, there's no telling what how bright the future could be.
