Average Price Is Going Up

Free Agents Score Big; Bonds Back With Giants

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., Dec. 7 -- It says something about the nature of baseball's winter meetings that one major deal was completed by a general manager from a hospital bed, while the week's wildest rumor was the result of a late-night exchange between Barry Bonds's agent and the manager of the reigning World Series champion.

As executives from across the game rolled their suitcases out the front door of the Walt Disney World Dolphin resort on Thursday morning, past hotel "cast members" telling them to "have a magical day," few appeared of a mind to return the greeting. Relatively little of note was accomplished over the four-day meetings, other than accelerating the trend of skyrocketing contracts being handed out to free agents.

Late Thursday night came word of yet another eight-figure deal, this one to keep to Bonds a San Francisco Giant for one year and $16 million, according to MLB.com. It would figure that such a move would come after the anticlimactic four days in Florida. Reportedly, the deal is pending only a physical.

The popular game of "Rank the Stupidest Contracts," which was a favorite pastime of small-revenue executives whiling away the hours in the teeming hotel lobby this week, received one new prospective entry Thursday when Gil Meche, the underachieving right-handed pitcher, closed in on a five-year deal with the Kansas City Royals for $55 million.

"I'm surprised at the stultified dollars that have been spent on mediocre players," said Jim Bowden, general manager of the Washington Nationals, speaking in general about the market. "It's just amazing to me, because even with the revenues being as high as ever in the game, there's not enough to support the type of signings that are being done."

Still, the most intriguing names being tossed around at the start of the meetings remained under the category of still-unresolved by Thursday:

Mercurial slugger Manny Ramirez, the juiciest piece of trade bait out there, remained a member of the Boston Red Sox, who, instead of trading their cleanup hitter, walked away from the meetings with outfielder J.D. Drew and shortstop Julio Lugo, and appeared to be making progress in signing free agent closer Eric Gagne.

Left-hander Barry Zito, considered the top free agent pitcher on the market, remained unsigned, with the Texas Rangers, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Giants and perhaps others still in pursuit. Executives familiar with those negotiations were predicting a payday of perhaps $90 million to $105 million for Zito.

And Bonds's agent, Jeff Borris, departed Thursday morning having failed -- at least temporarily -- to find a landing place for the most prolific hitter of his generation, but professing confidence in having a deal done shortly.

"He could snap his fingers," Borris told reporters as he left, "and get a deal done."

A few hours later, Bonds apparently did just that. Whether he got what he wanted -- a vesting option for 2008 at the same salary that would become guaranteed if he reached a certain number of plate appearances in 2007 -- was unclear.

If there was indeed a "mystery" team, it apparently was not the St. Louis Cardinals, whose general manager, Walt Jocketty, shot down rumors to that effect Thursday morning, telling MLB.com: "There's nothing on with Bonds. I'm sick and tired of people asking that."

Jocketty, however, has only his manager to blame. Shortly after midnight Thursday morning, Tony La Russa approached Borris outside a hotel restaurant and blurted, "I want to talk to your guy [Bonds]. Where is he?" -- according to a San Jose Mercury News reporter who happened to be speaking to Borris at the time and who reported the exchange in Thursday's editions, leading to wild speculation about the Cardinals' intentions.

Perhaps it would not have been surprising had the Cardinals taken such extreme measures in order to keep pace with their hated division rivals, the Chicago Cubs, whose offseason spending spree continued even when GM Jim Hendry wound up in a nearby hospital undergoing angioplasty on Wednesday. According to Gary Hughes, a Cubs special assistant to the GM, Hendry wrapped up negotiations on left-hander Ted Lilly's four-year, $40 million contract Wednesday night from his hospital bed. And because Lilly's signing brought the Cubs' total expenditures on free agents this winter to $272.5 million, the questions posed to Hughes on Thursday about Hendry's health inevitably were followed by a different question:

"Obviously," Hughes said, "people are asking me, 'You guys got any money left?' "

Notes: One day after trading right-hander Freddy Garcia to the Philadelphia Phillies, the Chicago White Sox came close to trading away another starting pitcher, Jon Garland, to the Houston Astros for center fielder Willy Taveras and two younger pitchers. Had the trade gone through, it could have ended the Astros' pursuit of Andy Pettitte, whom the New York Yankees are trying to sign to a one- or two-year deal. . . .

The Cincinnati Reds made a deal to acquire troubled outfielder Josh Hamilton from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Thursday morning's Rule 5 draft. Hamilton, the first overall pick from the 1999 amateur draft, has played sparingly because of injuries and substance abuse issues. As a Rule 5 selection, Hamilton must remain on the Reds' 25-man active roster all season or be offered back to the Devil Rays.

Staff writer Barry Svrluga contributed to this report.