Contract holdout waits on principle
( Baseball Weekly ) Rick Lawes; 11-16-1994
While the other 27 players chosen in the first round of this year's
draft were playing in winter leagues or otherwise prepping for
their next pro season, Jason Varitek was in the Georgia Tech bullpen.
Varitek was the first-round choice of the Seattle Mariners last
June, the 14th pick overall. But he is the only first-round pick
not to have signed a contract - a dubious honor he's held for two
years. Now Varitek could become the focus of an expected lawsuit
brought by his adviser, Scott Boras, challenging major league
baseball's rules regarding how long franchises control the rights
to draft picks.
It started after the 1993 college season, when Varitek hit .404
with 22 homers and 72 RBI as a junior at Georgia Tech. A
switch-hitting catcher, he was selected with the 21st pick overall
by the Minnesota Twins.
The Twins offered $435,000 - the midpoint between the bonuses given
to the 20th and 22nd picks. Boras maintained Varitek, a member of
the 1992 U.S. Olympic baseball team, deserved more - and Varitek
returned to Georgia Tech for his senior season.
In 1994, the Longwood, Fla., native led Tech to the College World
Series for the first time in school history, and was named winner
of the Dick Howser Trophy (awarded to the nation's outstanding
college player).
In the draft, held the day before the CWS began, Varitek actually
improved seven picks.
"I was surprised - and I sure am happy to be to be back in the
first round," Varitek said at the time. "It takes the monkey off my
back - it feels like a thousand-pound weight has been lifted from
my shoulders."
That all changed quickly, however. The Mariners first offered
$350,000 - a figure Varitek called "embarrassing."
He was looking for something in the range of $850,000.
Paul Konerko, a high school catcher from Scottsdale, Ariz., taken
13th, got $830,000 from the Dodgers. Right-handed high school
pitcher Jayson Peterson, the 15th pick, got $712,500 from the Cubs.
Sixteenth pick Matt Smith of Grants Pass, Ore., High School
received a cool million from the Royals.
"People looking at it from the outside only see dollars," Varitek
says. "They just see $400,000. They don't see what's going on.
People who know understand there's a principle at stake."
The Mariners said that because Varitek had finished his
eligibility, he had half the market value he would have had as a
junior, because he could still return to school.
Under the current rules, the Mariners hold Varitek's rights until a
week before the '95 draft, at which time he goes back into the pool.
Boras contends Varitek should be a free agent, because he has
returned to classes at Georgia Tech. When a player returns to
school after being drafted (usually pertaining to juniors), the
team that selected him loses the right to sign that player.
Major league baseball says even though Varitek returned to school,
he comes under the rule pertaining to fifth-year seniors. A team
holds rights to such players until a week before the next year's
draft. Only when he is not selected in a draft, would he become a
free agent.
Boras says that because Varitek can no longer play baseball at
Tech, he therefore should no longer be considered a "college
player."
For now, Varitek sits and waits. In the morning, he takes batting
practice against a machine; in the afternoon, he warms up pitchers
in the Yellow Jackets' bullpen.
"It's a matter of principle," he says.