PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. -- Curt Schilling is headed to the
Boston Red Sox -- if he waives his no-trade clause with the Arizona
Diamondbacks.
The five-time All-Star announced the tentative trade Monday to
reporters outside his house as his children and dogs played in the
yard. During the impromptu news conference, teammate Randy Johnson
drove by in a pickup truck and yelled to reporters playfully,
"You're blocking the street!"
Schilling is scheduled to make $12 million next season with the
chance to earn almost $2 million more in performance bonuses, but
he wants an extension before agreeing to a trade.
"I won't leave here without an extension," Schilling said.
"I'm reading that I'm demanding three years. I've never demanded
anything from anybody, but I will get a contract extension before I
leave Arizona."
Schilling said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein and
president Larry Lucchino were coming to Phoenix to meet with him.
The Red Sox asked the commissioner's office for permission to
discuss a contract extension with Schilling, the 37-year-old
right-hander said, a window that expires at 5 p.m. Friday.
"I am going to meet with (Boston) on Wednesday," Schilling said. "Money is not going to be the key factor. I already have more money then I am ever going to spend. It will have to be right for me, my wife and family. The Red Sox have some positives, the Yankees have some positives, but we will see after I talk to them."
Officials with both teams refused to talk of the deal.
"We won't have any comment until we have an official
transaction to announce," Epstein told reporters in Boston
earlier. On Monday night, Epstein attended the Boston Celtics' game
against the New York Knicks with free agent closer Keith Foulke.
Arizona GM Joe Garagiola Jr. also declined to comment on the
trade, but he did say Monday night, "Curt is remarkable in the way
he is able to handle this objectively. That's part of what makes
him a great competitor." The Diamondbacks have said they can't
afford to give Schilling a new deal that runs after 2004.
But the potential deal has at least one Red Sox player salivating.
Current ace Pedro Martinez wants to add
Schilling to the rotation, saying it would instantly make Boston a
favorite to end the New York Yankees' streak of six AL East titles.
"With Schilling, Derek Lowe and me in the rotation, it would be
tough on our rivals," Martinez told The Associated Press in the
Dominican Republic.
Boston would give up left-hander Casey Fossum, several baseball
officials said on the condition of anonymity. Reliever Brandon
Lyon, minor league pitcher Jorge De La Rosa and outfielder Michael
Goss also would be moving to Arizona, according to several reports.
Despite earlier reports on a potential three-team trade between the Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers, a deal to send Schilling to Boston will instead be handled between just Arizona and the Red Sox.
A potential three-way deal was initially discussed, a deal that would have sent Fossum and prospects to the Brewers, while first baseman Richie Sexson would have left Milwaukee for Arizona, with Schilling going to Boston.
If the deal with Boston goes through they
could trade some of those players to the Brewers.
Schilling said he would not agree to any trades after the start
of spring training. He did not indicate whether he was likely to
accept this deal, but said he would only consider a trade to three
teams, listing his preferences in order as the Philadelphia
Phillies, New York Yankees and Boston.
"There's bait to all three of them, and challenges to all three
of them," he said. "I'd say the chances are highly unlikely that
I will be here (in Arizona). But who knows?"
Schilling said the Red Sox would make things more tempting if
they hire his former manager in Philadelphia, Terry Francona, to
replace Grady Little. Francona is one of four people to have
interviewed for the Red Sox job; the Red Sox interviewed Texas
coach DeMarlo Hale on Monday and hope to have a decision by the
winter meetings Dec. 12.
The trade with Boston would send Schilling back to an
organization that traded him away as a prospect, along with Brady
Anderson, for Mike Boddicker as the Red Sox geared up for the 1988
pennant race. The Red Sox were swept by the Oakland Athletics, and
Schilling developed into one of the game's top pitchers.
He has a 163-117 career record with a 3.33 ERA and 2,542
strikeouts. He went 22-6 with 293 strikeouts in and a 2.98 ERA in
2001 as the Diamondbacks won the World Series, then followed that
up with a 23-7 record and 316 strikeouts and 3.23 ERA the next
year.
Both years, he finished second to Johnson in the NL Cy Young
Award voting. The two were co-MVPs of the 2001 Series.
But last season, Schilling made just 24 starts and missed six
weeks after breaking a bone in his right hand. He went 8-9 with a
2.95 ERA and struck out 194 batters in 168 innings.
Fossum was the subject of trade talks for most of last winter,
with Boston deciding not to package him with third baseman Shea
Hillenbrand in a deal for Montreal's Bartolo Colon. Hillenbrand was
traded to Arizona during the season for pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim, who
went in and out of the closer's role and could be back as a starter
in '04.
Fossum was 6-5 with a 5.47 ERA for Boston in '03 and also
pitched in eight games at Double- and Triple-A.
Schilling hasn't had much success at Fenway Park. He was 0-2
with a 7.50 ERA there with the Orioles and Phillies before beating
Boston in his only appearance for the Diamondbacks, in June 2002.
"I am not that worried about pitching there, other righthanders have done it," Schilling said.
He also took the loss when he started for the NL in the 1999
All-Star game, facing Pedro Martinez.
Also Monday, the Diamondbacks agreed to a minor league contract
with left-hander Jesse Orosco and invited him to spring training.
Orosco, at 46 the oldest player in the major leagues, was 2-2 with
2 saves and a 7.68 ERA in 65 games last season for San Diego, the
Yankees and Minnesota. He would get an $800,000, one-year contract
if he's added to the major league roster.