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Aurilia Signs Three-Year Deal With Giants
By Henry Schulman, San Francisco Chronicle, 12/22/00, E6
Rich Aurilia and Mark Grace have been pals for a long time because they share an agent, Barry Axelrod. When the three dined together in Arizona last week, Grace lamented over leaving the Cubs for the Diamondbacks after 13 seasons because he wouldn't retire where he started.
Grace's words touched Aurilia, who later told Axelrod he would love to stay in San Francisco and join the shrinking fraternity of modern players who stay in one city their whole careers. Will it happen? Recent history suggests the odds are slim.
Barring a trade, though, Aurilia will have at least eight straight seasons with the Giants after he completes the three-year, $14.75 million contract he signed yesterday. The Giants also reached a two-year, $975,000 deal with utilityman Felipe Crespo. Both had been eligible for salary arbitration.
"I really think there's a lot to say about a player if he spends his whole career in one place," Aurilia said. "I just saw a quote from Jeff Bagwell, who,
it looks like, will spend his whole career in Houston now, and he said, 'When people think about the Houston Astros, they think about Jeff Bagwell.' And I liked that.
"There are only a handful of guys who spend their whole career in one place.
It's something to respect and admire in a player."
As the Giants once kept hiring shortstops like Jose Vizcaino, Shawon Dunston and Rey Sanchez to play ahead of Aurilia, or platoon with him, he became frustrated and wondered if he ever would be an everyday shortstop in San Francisco. When he finally got his chance, he flourished at the plate.
At 29, Aurilia is coming off two straight seasons in which he led NL shortstops in homers (22 and 20) and RBIs (80 and 79). Now comes the financial reward.
"Richie's performance the last few years speaks for itself," Giants assistant general manager Ned Colletti said. "He gives us a dimension not a lot of teams have at his position in offensive production.
"We hold the nucleus of this club very dearly. We really do. We thought it was a good idea to give him some financial security and make sure he'd be with us the next three years."
Aurilia won't exactly have the same financial security that Alex Rodriguez recently acquired. When Aurilia saw his fellow shortstop's $252 million deal, he joked, "My initial reaction was I should ask for $126 million."
But seriously, Aurilia said, "He's on a whole different page than a lot of people in baseball. In my scenario, I'm happy with the way the dealings went and what I received and I'm happy to be back here again with a chance to win again."
The Giants maintained their right to negotiate exclusively with Aurilia by tendering him a contract by a midnight Wednesday deadline. They did likewise with Crespo and just as quickly secured him for another two years.
The defensively versatile switch-hitter co-led the National League with 15 pinch hits and was second in pinch RBIs with 13 last year. He hit .290 in 131 at-bats overall.
"He's never had any sort of security, so signing a long-term contract was very intriguing to him," Crespo's agent, David Sloane, said. "He loves the situation in San Francisco. Like everyone else he loves Dusty Baker. Plus, they won a (division) championship last year.
The Crespo and Aurilia signings leave pitcher Shawn Estes the only arbitration-eligible Giant still unsigned. They still have at least six weeks to reach a deal before actually going to arbitration.