Goes the Lion, Comes the Lamb

Back on December 23, David Eckstein signed a three-year, $10.25 million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals, closing the final loop in Major League Baseball's first three-way shortstop swap orchestrated entirely by the players.

Now, as the 2005 regular season winds down, a clear winner — and loser — in this swap can be adjudicated. But we'd be remiss if we didn't hear the case first.

Days after the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years, there were hints that shortstop Orlando Cabrera may not be part of a title defense. Front office rhetoric steeped in superlatives over him always seemed to stop just short of an add-on qualifier. The word out of Yawkey Way was that Cabrera's asking price was too high, perhaps as much as $6 million per year for four years. With the imminent rise of Double-A prospect Hanley Ramirez, that was simply too long of a commitment.

Meanwhile, two thousand miles away in St. Louis, the Cardinals owned baseball's best record in 2004 and had successfully handled the postseason pressures that come with such a distinction, winning their first National League pennant in 17 years. Now the nucleus was in place from which to launch a multi-year attack on the World Series trophy and it must be preserved. Retaining shortstop Edgar Renteria, the defensive stalwart that also brought a little pop to the plate, became their highest Hot Stove priority.

Big market spenders became like so many bullets to dodge. The Orioles and Yankees were set at shortstop, while the Mets and Dodgers hoped they had already found their players of the future. If the Angels got restless, it would probably be on account of Nomar Garciaparra, who was also a preoccupation of the Cubs. And the Red Sox? Well they had youth and, in the meantime, they had Orlando Cabrera.

In Boston, Orlando Cabrera walked on water.

The Red Sox had been mired in an 8½ game deficit when they acquired Cabrera from the Montreal Expos at the 2004 trade deadline. The three-team deal sent the moody and disgruntled Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs. After that trade, the Sox began to roll, winning 40 of their final 55 games and even closing to within two games of first place on two occasions.

Cabrera's stellar defensive play was attributed to much of that success. His .294 average and timely hitting were the icing on the cake.

Then came October. Nervous Bostonians accustomed to failure discovered an inner peace when opposing batters hit anything to the left side of the infield. Throw in his .288 batting average, .377 OBP, and 11 RBI in 14 errorless postseason games, and the image of Orlando Cabrera forever intertwined itself among the circle of flagpoles that sit on the base of Boston's World Series trophy.

When rumors that Cabrera would not be resigned reached the communities of Red Sox Nation even before the touring trophy, they were not well received. Those rumors soon found validation once the intentions of Red Sox GM Theo Epstein were revealed.

He wanted Edgar.

In St. Louis, Edgar Renteria was the second coming of Ozzie.

Heralded as among the best in the next wave of superstar shortstops, Renteria's sixth year as a Cardinal had just ended in a World Series appearance. Over those six years, Renteria batted .290 and averaged 75 RBI. Twice, he hit .300. In 2003, he became the first National League shortstop in 18 years to drive in 100 runs and his total is still an all-time high among Cardinal shortstops.

He is Ozzie, but with a bat.

The championship experience Renteria brought from Florida became the cornerstone in building a perennial pennant-contender in St. Louis. It should not be surprising that he was the Cardinals' most sought-after free agent last winter. Of all the challengers for Renteria's services, none could have been worse than the Boston Red Sox.

Their humiliation complete after being swept in the World Series, St. Louis sent Boston back east with a heartfelt congratulations in true Midwestern form. Deep down, both organization and fans wished it the last they'd hear from Beantowners until 2005 interleague play.

Nevertheless, the World Series was merely prelude to an off-field battle now denominated in dollars rather than runs. When it drew to a close with the December 15 announcement that Renteria had agreed in principle to a four-year, $40 million deal with Boston that was beyond the Cardinals' mid-market means, it seemed as if the World Series had never ended.

But St. Louis is as resilient as it is gracious. Management wished Edgar well then turned their sites to the unsigned Cabrera. And once again, the long purse-strings of the Boston Red Sox strangled them.

Notwithstanding Renteria's signing, pitching had been Boston's highest off-season priority. It was also the top priority of Bill Stoneman, GM of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

As top arms like Carl Pavano, Mark Mulder, Pedro Martinez, Tim Hudson, and Randy Johnson were being spoken for, laws of supply and demand drove up the popularity of secondary level pitching. The battlefield soon became the Cubs' Matt Clement, with the Red Sox and Angels the principal warriors.

Two days after signing Renteria, the Red Sox also won the battle for Clement.

With prospects for pitching now slim, the Angels reorganized. "We decided that our next step would be shortstop," Stoneman later reflected at the press conference in which he announced Cabrera's signing.

With Orlando now an Angel, David Eckstein was free to look for another gig.

Over his four years in Los Angeles, Eckstein was a yeoman. No frills, just steady fielding and consistency at the plate. As an Angel, he hit a solid .278, albeit with only 17 homers and 170 RBI.

However, Eckstein's biggest contribution came in the 2002 postseason, when he hit safely in 13 of the Angels' 16 games en route to the franchise's first championship. In the seven-game World Series, he hit .310 and seemed a permanent fixture on the bases, scoring six runs.

Eckstein was blue-collar in a land where glitter reigns. However, the grit and perseverance Californians came to appreciate are iconic virtues in the heartland of America. St. Louis looked west, David Eckstein had his home, and the Cardinals had their shortstop.

"It's a good fit for St. Louis," GM Walt Jocketty quipped when the deal was done.

Fast forward to the last two weeks of the 2005 season. We find each shortstop in the thick of yet another pennant race. Currently, all three are on first-place teams, though for two it is a day-to-day adventure.

Only David Eckstein and the St. Louis Cardinals are on cruise control.

St. Louis again owns baseball's best record and appears poised for a successful defense of their National League pennant. Whether in large part or small, the Cardinals' ability to make themselves whole in the wake of Edgar Renteria's loss has contributed to their current success.

Through 145 games, David Eckstein has a .288 average, 7 home runs, and 56 RBI. Last year, Renteria hit .287 with 10 homers and 72 RBI in that spot. However, with Jim Edmonds and Albert Pujols behind him, Eckstein's higher OBP (.359 vs. Renteria's .327 in 2004) offsets his lack of production and better complements the strengths of his teammates.

Nor has the Cardinals infield suffered. Eckstein has matched Renteria's 2004 fielding percentage (.982 vs. .983). Despite a reputation for limited range, he gets to more balls than his predecessor (5.10 vs. 4.41) and has already turned 16 more double plays than Edgar did in all of 2004.

In Boston, the transition for Renteria has not been as smooth.

Of the parties to last winter's swap, the shy and unobtrusive Renteria figured to have the greatest difficulty, transitioning from medium market to large, Midwest to East, limelight to spotlight.

Fortunately for a fielder of his reputation, the yardstick by which he'd be measured was his glove, a tool more stable than the bat. After all, defense isn't as prone to slumps.

Last weekend, Renteria failed to handle a routine relay back into the infield in the eighth inning of a one-run game, allowing Oakland's Jason Kendall to tack third base onto his double. That error, his Major League-leading 28th this season, is endemic of Renteria's season.

Although not costly on this particular night, Renteria's mental and physical lapses have stacked the deck against his team in ways that only a sabermetrician could quantify. But fans feel it instinctively and have reacted with raw subjective emotion, often booing him.

Boston's faithful know too well how Orlando Cabrera — the man Renteria replaced, the player he is compared to — has but five errors all year and has the highest fielding percentage among major league shortstops.

They wonder how far ahead of the Yankees they'd be if the unearned runs born of his 23 additional errors could be magically erased from the box score.

Then there's offense. Replacing Cabrera's bat did not figure to be an obstacle since he was primarily a defensive acquisition. However, Cabrera proved surprising in his 57 games with Boston in 2004, hitting .294 with 6 home runs and 31 RBI.

By contrast, Renteria is now hitting .274 with 7 homers and 62 RBI. That's a drop of 20 points and 15 annualized runs batted in, neither of which makes fans cease wondering what clubhouse intangibles they've gained as compensation for the field and plate presence they've lost.

To them, their organization has tried to fix what was not broken.

In the process, GM Theo Epstein has tipped an applecart that may well land Bill Stoneman's Angels and Walt Jocketty's Cards in this year's Autumn Classic as Boston fans look in from the outside.