The last great selloff of the Montreal Expos began in the midst of the 1994-1995 work stoppage, as ownership anticipated massive financial losses from the shutdown. The Expos allowed Larry Walker to walk away as a free agent and traded center fielder Marquis Grissom, starting pitcher Ken Hill and closer John Wetteland.
As team owner Claude Brochu looked for ways to save money, however, he did not take aim at the baseball operations department. There was no baseball after mid-August in 1994, and no certainty of a season at the outset of '95, but there were no firings or furloughs.
"That was a good organization," recalled former Expos general manager Dan Duquette, who had moved on from Montreal in February 1994. "You had a lot of dedicated people in that organization, people who gave their life to baseball."
A small-market team, the Expos built an extraordinary culture of player development -- but also in front-office talent. Just as the Cleveland Indians and Tampa Bay Rays are now regarded as reliable sources for baseball operations help, the Expos churned out (among others) Bill Stoneman, Bob Gebhard, Dave Dombrowski, Gary Hughes, Duquette and Kevin Malone. At the time of the players' strike, the Expos' administrative assistant for the minor leagues -- presumably one of the lowest-paid members of the organization -- was Neal Huntington, who later would become the general manager of the Pirates for more than a decade.
"They knew that whatever they invested [in baseball ops staff] would be returned many times over," Duquette said.
It's an example worth pondering among baseball owners at a time when there is industry fear -- anticipation, really -- of massive layoffs in the weeks ahead. Major League Baseball fields are empty, ballpark gates closed, concession stands shuttered. The $11 billion revenue river has dried up, and while league and team officials and union leaders must and will weigh contingency plans, nobody knows for sure when the sport will open for business again; a hot spot of coronavirus cases, like those just experienced in the safe haven of the White House, could derail any restart.
Some teams have already started layoffs, and among front-office officials there is an expectation that one of the most significant waves of firings could occur immediately after next month's amateur draft. There is concern about how small-market teams will conduct business without the benefit of game-day revenue, but even some of the big-market franchises are perceived within the industry to be cash-poor, including the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs, for varying reasons.
The Pittsburgh Pirates took the draconian step of suspending contributions to their employees' 401(k) plans, for cost savings measured in thousands of dollars, rather than hundreds of thousands or millions. Many longtime baseball officials are privately appalled by what they view as a decision that will have relatively little bearing on the team's bottom line, but is a sledgehammer on the lives of the lowest-paid employees, making perhaps $30,000 to $60,000 annually.
"I don't understand," one exec said. "There are only so many times in your life when you can do something to help when the situation is really bleak and the chips are down for people -- and you can step up and show how to do the right thing to help."
If there are no games this year, owners stand to lose many millions of dollars, but they are much better positioned to take a financial hit than a lot of the people they might push into a devastated economy. Franchise values have never been higher than in recent times; the Miami Marlins, arguably one of baseball's poorest and worst teams, were sold less than three years ago for $1.2 billion. Derek Jeter, the team's chief operating executive, took the admirable step of forgoing his annual $5 million salary during this shutdown, a decision that probably won't impact his ability to provide food and shelter for loved ones. Jeter earned more than $250 million in salary from the Yankees, as well as large sums for endorsements. He'll be OK, in a way that a lot of Marlins employees would not be if they had been pushed out the door last month.
Some club officials estimate that an annual baseball operations budget, separated from player salaries, runs about $25 million annually, on the high end. To extrapolate, retaining every baseball ops employee for all 30 teams for a year might cost something in the range of $750 million. Or about the same as the combined value of the Mike Trout and Gerrit Cole contracts.
That sum is a drop in the bucket when measured against franchise values, owner wealth and bounce-back potential for the industry. After all, MLB is probably more assured of future consumers than, say, most restaurants.
But keeping employees on payrolls in these times may well require acts of grace and generosity by owners, which is why Detroit Tigers owner Chris Ilitch is regarded as a superhero among second-tier staffers. Last month, Ilitch released an unequivocal statement that underscored his commitment to those in his organization.
"The Detroit Tigers have no plans for layoffs or furloughs of its employees, including those subject to a Uniformed Employee contract," the statement read. "We are a family company with strong values around our employees, our fans and our communities. Of course, this is an evolving situation that we're confronting head on and we'll keep our employees updated if things change. But we are taking a longer term view."
This is a perspective that could elude other owners, some club officials believe. Whenever baseball does resume -- and it will someday -- Ilitch's actions will pay off for the Tigers, in their retention and pursuit of the best baseball operations talent, and in how the organization is perceived by consumers. "Are you kidding?" one staffer on another team said. "Guys would run through a wall for someone like that."
Said another: "People [in the game] will remember when you treat your people that way."
Every organization may not be as well-positioned financially as Ilitch to make that kind of protective decision. There are no ticket sales, no games are being watched, no money is being generated. The losses are real and they are significant. As one high-ranking executive said, the teams lacking ownership of extreme wealth -- "the ma and pa teams" -- may be more vulnerable.
But most teams are probably capable of doing what the Philadelphia Phillies did. The other day, managing partner John Middleton informed their 460 employees in an email that they would be retained through October. "While we will likely need to implement other cost-cutting alternatives in the interim to deal with our extraordinary loss of revenue," he wrote, "including possible salary reductions, you can be assured of your job and health insurance for the next five-plus months."
But the concern among some employees is that some organizations will use the shutdown as a way to reduce organizational costs. In recent years, there has been a shift in the scouting world, fronted by the Houston Astros, to more use of video with fewer "boots on the ground." Some front-office executives predict that following the draft in June, which has been reduced to five rounds, an army of amateur scouts will be fired or furloughed, and perhaps never find jobs in the industry again, as teams experiment with video.
"I bet 40% of those let go never get back in baseball again," an NL official said. "A lot of these guys have been in the game for their whole adult lives, and they're making pennies. And you're just going to throw those guys on the street, into this economy?"
Said another team exec: "Baseball will come back, and I bet teams could make up the cost of keeping these people on within four or five years. It just doesn't make any sense to me that these [teams] need to dump people making $40,000, $50,000. Those savings are not difference-making" within the MLB context.
At a time when so many who work within baseball need leaders to grab an oar, Chris Ilitch did it; so did John Middleton. In the days ahead, we'll see who else is moved to help.
On the Baseball Tonight podcast
Friday: Terry Francona talks about his time managing Michael Jordan, plus Todd Radom's weekly quiz.
Thursday: Longtime manager Jim Leyland talks about managing Barry Bonds with the Pirates and Miguel Cabrera with the Tigers; Marly Rivera on her sit-down with union chief Tony Clark.
Wednesday: Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos, formerly of Toronto, talks about the Jays' big deals of 2014-15; Paul Hembekides jumps on; plus, a haircut disaster.
Tuesday: Oakland SS Marcus Semien talks Rickey Henderson, Ron Washington, Cal-Berkeley.
Monday: Former HOF president Jeff Idelson has stories about Hall of Famers: Jeter, Murray, Sutter, Yogi, etc.; Sarah Langs also joins the show.