Probably recieved less hype than deserved, but this Chicago Tribune story came a few days after the first phrase of Baseball Off Season, and got lost in the weekend football stuff.
Previously, if the Cubs wanted to move Sosa, either the recieving club would have to take a lot of extra salary in his auto-optioned year, or the Cubs would end up paying more to trade Sammy than they would to keep him. Neither option was likely, no matter who’s boombox got broke.
Now, it sounds like the union will let Sammy choose to drop the option year from his deal, if it’ll help a trade. He’ll still get the buyout the Cubs are required to pay if they don’t pick up the option ($4.5mil), but that reduces the total worth of Sosa’s traded contract from $35mil (17 this year, 18 next) to $22mil – a far more workable number. The proposed Cliff Floyd deal would be $13mil going the other way. That still leaves $9 mil to be split up somehow, but that can be done if the Mets really want Sosa.
Sammy must believe that he’s not getting that option year to go along with this. But he’s also not going anywhere without getting a new contract to go with his new team, so this isn’t settled yet. Quite a bit lot more likely, though.