RetroSimba

Andy Benes left the Cardinals and went to the Diamondbacks because he, his agent and general manager Walt Jocketty couldn’t follow baseball rules.

On Feb. 3, 1998, Benes, a starting pitcher, signed a three-year contract worth $18 million to play for the Diamondbacks, who joined the National League as an expansion team that season.

Benes had reached an agreement to stay with the Cardinals, but the deal came together after expiration of a deadline mandated by the baseball owners’ Player Relations Committee.

Instead of getting the Cardinals’ offer of a five-year contract worth $32.5 million, Benes settled for less with the Diamondbacks.

Deadline pressure

Benes joined the Cardinals as a free agent after the 1995 season. He was 18-10 with a 3.83 ERA in 1996 and 10-7 with a 3.10 ERA in 1997 before becoming a free agent.

The Cardinals wanted to re-sign him and Benes indicated he wanted to remain in St. Louis, but negotiations stalled.

Because the Cardinals hadn’t offered Benes salary arbitration, baseball rules established by the Player Relations Committee dictated he and the club had to reach a contract agreement by midnight on Dec. 7, 1997, or else Benes would not be eligible to re-sign with the Cardinals until May 1, 1998.

Benes didn’t want to wait until May to sign a contract, so it became imperative he and the Cardinals reach an agreement by the Dec. 7 deadline if he was to stay in St. Louis.

Breaking the rule

Jocketty and Benes’ agent, Scott Boras, went down to the wire in the negotiations. When it became apparent they needed more time, they asked Major League Baseball officials for an extension and were granted an additional 30 minutes to get a deal done.

The deadline extension passed without an agreement being reached. About two hours later, the sides settled on the five-year, $32.5 million contract.

The Player Relations Committee, however, ruled the agreement invalid because it hadn’t been reached in the allotted time.

Benes and the Cardinals initially appealed the ruling, but dropped the matter when it became clear baseball officials wouldn’t budge.

Bernie Miklasz, columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, questioned why the agreement wasn’t approved. “The bureaucrats who run baseball are poised to kill the deal and all of this good faith because of some arcane rule? Absurd,” Miklasz wrote.

Go west

With the Cardinals out of the picture, Benes and Boras negotiated with the Cubs, Mets and Indians, but got no offers, in part, because Boras wanted a contract clause that would allow Benes the option to leave his next team after one season.

With little bargaining leverage remaining, Benes agreed to the three-year offer from the Diamondbacks that gave him the option to depart after two seasons.

Though he could have waited until May and signed with the Cardinals, Benes feared he could suffer an injury during the wait and ruin any chance for a contract offer, so he opted to sign the guaranteed contract from the Diamondbacks.

“We made a very substantial offer, which unfortunately wasn’t able to get completed on time,” Jocketty said. “We can’t look back.”

Said Benes: “I was disappointed with the way things didn’t work out in St. Louis, but things sometimes don’t work out for a reason. Maybe (Arizona) is the place I was supposed to be after all.”

Post-Dispatch columnist Dan O’Neill described Benes’ departure as “a messy tale of a ballplayer burned by the system, a victim of bad timing, a casualty of miscommunication and red tape.”

In two seasons with the Diamondbacks, Benes was 14-13 with a 3.97 ERA in 1998 and 13-12 with a 4.81 ERA in 1999. After that, he exercised his option, departed and rejoined the Cardinals, playing his final three big-league seasons (2000-2002) with St. Louis.