Boston Columnists Rip Edgar Renteria's Greed ... Or Not.

"All-Star shortstop Edgar Renteria said yesterday what he 'most wanted was respect and to be to be valued as a player.'

As important as the multimillion-dollar pay raise the Red Sox offered in a four-year, $40 million contract with an option for a fifth year, was the dogged determination with which Sox management wooed him away from St. Louis, the softspoken Colombian said in a lengthy interview in Spanish peppered with English here in his seaside hometown, where he spends December and part of January.

'When they want you and they try everything to get you -- it could be economic, it could be calling and showing a real interest in you -- that's what makes the difference.' "

I wonder what Dan Shaughnessy must think about a player leaving a team that won 105 games and made the World Series.

Naturally, I expect Shaughnessy's reaction to read something like this:

"Respect? Value?

Maybe if St. Louis put his statue on top of the golden arch. Maybe if St. Louis had changed its name to St. Edgar.

He doesn't need the money. He has more money than anyone ever could spend. The Cards have paid him $20+ million over the last four years. But in Edgar's mind, the Sox respect him more simply because they are willing to pay him twice that."

Also, it took about five seconds to find a mirror image of Shaughnessy's article in a St. Louis newspaper, with Bernie Miklasz wishing Renteria a fond farewell:

" 'I don't know what else we could have done to make Edgar feel appreciated,' Jocketty said. 'We'd been trying for a long time to get him signed. We tried in spring training, and he didn't want to talk about a contract at that time. We tried again at midseason, and he didn't want to negotiate then. We've stayed in contact with him. (Manager) Tony (La Russa) talked to him several times this week. We made every attempt to negotiate a deal. I don't know what else we would have done to show him we want him back.'

The Cardinals offered Renteria four years, $36 million but increased the value to $39 million with deferred money. So, technically, Boston did put a more substantial offer on the table. But Boston GM Theo Epstein's payroll was $130 million last season, and might approach $140 million or so in 2005. Jocketty has been limited to an $85 million payroll by Cardinals ownership, and he has several holes to fill. If Renteria wanted the Cardinals to blow away Boston in a financial duel, it wasn't going to happen. Not with the resources Jocketty has available to him.

The Captain will be missed, but if the Red Sox stumble and fans and media in New England start howling during one of Renteria's slumps, I wonder if he'll miss St. Louis. Edgar could have stayed in his comfort zone for $39 million, but took the $40 million in Boston. If things don't go as well as planned, at least he'll have an extra million to spend on headache remedies."