Cardinals bow out of Maddux chase; Cubs still front-runner

Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.

As another team bowed out of the Greg Maddux sweepstakes, a national publication pondered whether agent Scott Boras' waiting tactics help or hinder his clients.

Boras represents both Maddux and catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, who helped the Florida Marlins win the World Series championship last fall. Both are likely bound for the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"I profess it is still an issue about talent," Boras said in the current issue of Sports Illustrated. "This idea of timing determining value is something I find not to be true."

Over the weekend, St. Louis joined San Diego in all but halting its Maddux negotiations with Boras. After the Padres quit talking with Boras last month, they signed former Yankees left-hander David Wells.

The Chicago Cubs still appear to be the front-runner to acquire Maddux, a former Valley High ace who was picked by the Cubs in the second round of the 1984 amateur draft.

Long shots include Arizona and any American League club, possibly Baltimore. Boras is believed to be seeking multiyear contracts, at $10 million per season, for both Maddux and Rodriguez.

Maddux said Monday that an agreement with a new team isn't imminent and that he hasn't been concerned with what appears to be slow progress in finding a suitor.

"Nothing to report, either way," he said. "I'm cool."

St. Louis Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty told MLB.com that he would be interested in adding Maddux to the team's rotation only if Boras "considerably" lowered his demands.

"But I wouldn't count on it," Jocketty said. "I think they've got a figure in mind that they want and a contract level that they want, and no one has come to that level yet. And I'm not sure anybody will."

At the Cubs Convention last weekend, inside the Chicago Hilton and Towers, the possibility of Maddux again wearing a Cubs uniform was the talk of hot-stove fans who gather every January.

Maddux, 37, won the first of his four Cy Young Awards in Chicago in 1992, his last season with the Cubs. He is 289-163 in an illustrious 18-year career, the last 11 of which he spent in Atlanta.

Chicago general manager Jim Hendry answered only one Maddux-related inquiry, before fielding half a dozen, at a "Meet Cubs Baseball Management" session early Saturday.

According to MLB.com, Hendry told the standing-room-only group that the Cubs "would love" to have Maddux.

"We're doing all we can," Hendry said. "He's going to go where he wants to go. He wants to win, but it's up to him. Nobody can talk him into anything."

Hendry made what is now believed to be a two-year offer, worth approximately $11 million, to Boras last Tuesday. By Saturday, Hendry said he hadn't heard from Boras.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Hendry offered a base salary of $5 million for both years, plus incentives. That's the same pact that Roger Clemens recently signed with the Houston Astros.

Cubs manager Dusty Baker told the Sun-Times that Houston, a division rival, made a statement by adding Andy Pettite and Clemens to its rotation in the offseason.

"You get Pettite and Clemens, known winners, what does that do for (Roy) Oswalt and (Wade) Miller and the other young guys?" Baker said. "Imagine what Maddux could do to help (Matt) Clement, (Mark) Prior, (Kerry) Wood and (Carlos) Zombrano.

"It's a lot easier on the pitching coach when you have a coach pitching that can show you what to do as opposed to a coach telling you what to do."

Cubs pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to spring training, in Mesa, Ariz., on Feb. 18.