Can he save the Rays?

It's official: Lou Piniella is the manager of the Rays. Can he do for them what he did for Seattle - make them winners?

[Times photo: Chris Zuppa] In 2001 with Seattle, Lou Piniella won 116 games. The Devil Rays lost at least 100 games each of the past two seasons. "I know we have a challenge ahead," he said.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published October 29, 2002

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ST. PETERSBURG -- Feel-good angles were everywhere. Lou Piniella stood at the podium Monday in his new No. 14 Devil Rays jersey, tears welling in his eyes as he talked about the privilege of getting to come home, to be with his family, and to manage his hometown team.

But it became clear by the end of the landmark announcement of Piniella's hiring that what's going to make everyone involved feel good is seeing the struggling team win.

"I would enjoy winning here more than anyplace else," Piniella said. "This is my hometown. This is where I'm going to live the rest of my life. This is where I'm going to die.

"This is where I'd like to get it done. I know we have a challenge ahead. I'm not naive enough to think this will be an overnight sensation. But at the same time, it's something that can be done. And it's something that when it's done, I'll take tremendous pride in. And I didn't say if, I said when."

The hiring of Piniella, one of the game's most successful managers, was a significant accomplishment for the Rays. Managing general partner Vince Naimoli and general manager Chuck LaMar played a game of can you top this in ranking it as the biggest announcement since the franchise was born in March 1995 and gushing about what impact Piniella will have. "A defining moment," Naimoli said. "The beginning of the future."

But it is what happens in the next couple of years that will be most important.

Piniella has made an immediate impact in previous jobs, but that is not the primary goal here. Both he and the Rays officials talked about a plan of using the 2003 season as essentially a phase-in period, maintaining (or possibly reducing) the $34-million payroll and giving the young players -- those already here such as Toby Hall, Aubrey Huff and Jared Sandberg; and those on they way, such as Rocco Baldelli -- an opportunity to gain experience. The main focus will be teaching them how to win.

But in 2004, they are talking about making a big leap, both in terms of payroll and performance. With the last remnants of their previous big-spending off the books after this coming season, the Rays will have a core of young players and a payroll of around $10-million.

LaMar said he would expect to spend a "significant" amount of money to add veterans, and Naimoli said it could be $20-million, $30-million, even $40-million more, the final budget a product of attendance among other things.

Bringing in Piniella, who's 25th in victories all-time (with a 1,319-1,135 record) and fourth among active managers, was expensive. The Rays will pay him $13-million over four years, at an annual average of $3.25-million that ranks second behind the Yankees' Joe Torre, and possibly another $3-million in incentives based on victories. (Plus, they're paying Hal McRae $700,000 not to manage and may pay out another $250,000 or so to coaches who may not coach).

The Rays also had to give Seattle their best all-around player, All-Star outfielder Randy Winn. Winn, whose salary is likely to jump from around $1-million to about $3.5-million after what some baseball observers say may have been a career year, wasn't likely to be around long anyway. The Rays had already explored trading him -- talking with the Mariners, among others -- and would have increased that effort during and after this coming season.

Plus, they did a good job negotiating with the Mariners, whose opening requests included combinations of Winn and Baldelli, and Winn and pitcher Joe Kennedy. The Rays gave up only Winn and ended up getting back a promising shortstop prospect in Antonio Perez.

After 10 seasons in Seattle, during which he guided the Mariners from being a losing team playing in an mostly empty domed stadium to a perennial contender, Piniella decided he wanted to at least get closer to his Tampa home, hoping to talk with the Rays and Mets.

That set off a wild 21/2 weeks of negotiations, highlighted by Naimoli's comic recollections of interrupting a hiking trip through Mexico to find pay phones that accepted his calling card.

The Rays first victory was negotiating the compensation agreement with the Mariners, something the Mets were not able -- or willing -- to do, which gave them the right to talk with Piniella. "I believed in my heart that if we got permission, and I told the ownership group that, we'll hire Lou Piniella," LaMar said.

When they met face-to-face at Naimoli's Tampa home early the morning of Oct. 19 over Krispy Kreme doughnuts, both sides liked what they heard.

Piniella had some doubts if the Rays were going to be willing to pay him enough, but he first had to know if the team was headed in the right direction.

"I wanted to know the commitment," Piniella said. "And basically Vince told me he was tired of losing. That made an impression on me."

LaMar had his own concerns. They too were eliminated.

"Probably as good a meeting as I can remember having," LaMar said. "You know that Lou's the right guy, but when you get a chance to sit down with him, you get excited because he's excited about the opportunity. It washed away any fears that I might have had about his taking the job because we're the only team that matched compensation? Is he taking the job strictly just to come home and be with the family? I can tell you, it was only an hour or two, but I walked out of there even more committed that we were going to hire Lou Piniella."

The reaction among the players and others has been positive.

"As far as an organization, I think it's big," veteran outfielder Greg Vaughn said. "They're putting out that they want to win, they want to make a commitment. They're saying to everyone else that they're serious."

Piniella, 59, said he welcomes the challenge.

"I'm fortunate," he said. "If I wasn't from this area they wouldn't pay me the money they're paying me to manage and if I wasn't from this area I probably wouldn't be interested in managing this team. So everything came together the right way. And it's going to be a good marriage. It really is. I look forward to coming in here and doing the best job I possibly can and really put this thing on solid footing the way we left it in Seattle."

-- Sports columnist John Romano contributed to this report.

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