MLB.com

By Barry M. Bloom and Bill Ladson / MLB.com

The vote was a temporary setback, at least for now, to baseball's plan to continue to globalize the game as the players declined playing at least 22 games again in San Juan, Puerto Rico, or Monterrey, Mexico.

The players opted against another grueling travel schedule with the hope that playing all of their home games in Montreal would help them be more competitive in the race for the playoffs. But Major League Baseball's No. 2 executive warned that the payroll will be reduced while the relocation committee studies a permanent move of the team for 2005.

"We're prepared to play in Montreal," said Bob DuPuy, MLB's president, chief operating officer and a member of the relocation committee that has been studying the future of the team. "Playing all of the games in Montreal will have a negative economic impact and will also have an negative economic impact on the operations of the team, including the makeup of the roster.

"This will have no impact on our deliberations or decision on relocation. We'll wait to determine that now until next year."

DuPuy's assessment of the situation came shortly after the vote, which was taken before Friday night's game against the Mets at Shea Stadium, during a meeting with Gene Orza, an associate counsel for the players association.

The Expos had been asked by MLB to consider playing 22 games next season in either San Juan or Monterrey. But the players turned down that proposal, saying that the extended travel and playing 103 of 162 games on the road had an adverse affect on their playoff chances. The Expos played 22 games this season in San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium and were 13-9 there.

They remained in the race for the National League's Wild Card berth until the end of August, when the players believed that the travel schedule caught up with them. There was also some discontent in the clubhouse that the Expos didn't bring up anyone from the minor leagues when the rosters expanded from 25 to 40 players on Sept. 1.

"We addressed all the pros and cons and the players had a private meeting after we presented the best-case scenario for a split," Orza said. "But for a constellation of reasons, the players are going to play all 81 games in Montreal. There will be no split season. It's not a negotiating ploy, believe me. It's their decision and that's what we will do.

"The players thought the people in Puerto Rico were great and they appreciate the interest and all that stuff, but the players' focus has been on how do we compete on the same level as everybody else they are competing against? Taking one-fourth of their home games, making them play someplace else, even under optimum scheduling conditions, is still an enormous burden."

The relocation committee, which was established this past November, has spent the season reviewing bids to permanently move the MLB owned-and-operated team. But those bids, from Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Portland, Ore., were considered incomplete. None of the communities have finished the financing and site selection for a new ballpark -- MLB's prime criteria before relocating the franchise.

Bobby Goldwater, the president and executive director of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, said he was told this week that the relocation committee is prepared again to address each of the proposals.

"We were told that, indeed, there has been a slowdown in the process, but that the committee was prepared to get going again after the season," Goldwater said.

The players said they were told last season that the split schedule would be only a one-year affair and that the team would be moved in time for next season. The 22 games in Puerto Rico drew an average of 14,222 and a total of 312,882.

In Montreal, the 59 games drew 712,757, an average of 12,081 a game. The combined home attendance of 1,025,639 is the Expos' most since 1997.

But the additional revenue of $7 million to $10 million generated in San Juan this season was the primary reason why the Expos were able to maintain a $45 million payroll and not trade away any of their key players, said DuPuy, who declined to designate a player payroll budget for next season.

"The players realize there is a possibility (that the team may lose some key players)," said Todd Zeile, who has acted as an associate player representative since he joined the team on Aug. 20. "There was also an indication that if they accommodated the 22 games out of Montreal this year, there would be consideration to improve the team. There would be relocation by next season. That obviously didn't happen.

"The fact that we didn't have one person called up in September, that sat uneasily in the players' stomach. If there was some commitment to improving the team, that would have been a good time to show it."

Two years ago, the low-revenue, low-attendance Expos were considered a prime candidate for contraction. But that possibility was tabled until at least the 2007 season under terms of the latest collective bargaining agreement. MLB purchased the team from Jeffery Loria for $120 million just before Spring Training in 2002. At the time, Loria bought the Florida Marlins.

The Expos suffered a reported $30 million in losses last season, and even this year, the other 29 MLB teams have had to spend about $1 million each in operating costs.

Even with a reduced payroll and the possibility of a scaled-down roster next season, some of the Expos players believe they will have a better chance to be competitive playing their entire home slate at Olympic Stadium.

"We can control where we want to play next year," said shortstop Orlando Cabrera. "At least they asked us this year. If it's Montreal, it's Montreal. It's nice. It's a good city. I love Montreal."

In the past week, the Expos opened contract negotiations with star right fielder Vladimir Guerrero with the hope of signing him before he's eligible to file for free agency a day after the end of the World Series.

Commissioner Bud Selig said during his visit nearly two weeks ago to San Juan, that he wants to keep the management team of president Tony Tavares, general manager Omar Minaya and manager Frank Robinson, in place next season. The trio was put in charge of the team from the outset in 2002 and has helped produce what could be consecutive winning seasons.

The Expos finished 83-79 last season and in second place in the National League East. Going into Friday night's action, the Expos were in fourth place with a 78-76 mark.

Rob Manfred, MLB's vice president of labor relations and human resources, said he didn't anticipate any further negotiations with the union, which had decided that the Expos players would determine their own fate. The split-schedule proposal favored by MLB called for all 22 home games to be played in Latin America before the All-Star break, meaning the Expos would've played only three times in Montreal before May 17.

"We gave them a proposal that was flexible for San Juan or Monterrey, but they chose to reject that," Manfred said.

"There's not going to be another proposal," DuPuy added.

Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter and Bill Ladson is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.