BACK TO WORK FOR MARLINS' CHATSWORTH-PRODUCT GM.

Byline: Rich Hammond  Staff Write

PHOENIX - With the taste of champagne barely out of his mouth, Florida Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest went back to work this month, trying to keep together his group of unlikely champions.

The Marlins won the World Series behind a talented young pitching staff that worked its way up through the minors and a strong offense that had Beinfest's fingerprints all over it.

Now, Beinfest's challenge is to maintain a winning franchise, with several key pieces of the 2003 team eligible for free agency or arbitration and without the financial resources to retain all of them.

``It's been a lot of fun, but now it's time to get things done,'' said Beinfest, a graduate of Chatsworth High. ``We have our challenges and a lot of things to tackle during the offseason.''

After the Marlins' previous championship, in 1997, then-owner Wayne Huizenga dismantled the team. The Marlins still are a small-market operation, but Beinfest is confident the team won't fade.

This week, Beinfest offered multiyear contracts to free-agent second baseman Luis Castillo and arbitration-eligible third baseman Mike Lowell.

Castillo is one of the prime free agents on the market this winter, and with catcher Ivan Rodriguez and closer Ugueth Urbina also free agents, and Juan Encarnacion, Derrek Lee, Brad Penny and Mark Redman eligible for arbitration, Beinfest can't ignore certain realities.

Until playoff fever hit Miami, the Marlins often drew crowds that, realistically, were less than 10,000. Largely because of that, owner Jeffrey Loria is unlikely to raise the payroll from this year's $54 million.

``I know our owner is committed to the region of South Florida,'' Beinfest said. ``We are revenue-challenged and resource-challenged, but hopefully that will get better. Things are going well, there's a lot of momentum and I think that can be attributed to the way the team played.''

And that's in no small part thanks to Beinfest, who arrived with Loria from Montreal before the 2002 season and acquired players such as Rodriguez, Redman, Dontrelle Willis and Juan Pierre, some of the top contributors to this year's championship team.

``We're moving ahead,'' Beinfest said. ``We're here at the (general managers') meetings to see what other teams' goals are. We haven't had a long offseason so far, so we're playing a little catch-up and talking internally and seeing what we can do to help this team.''

Rich Hammond, [phone]

rich.hammond(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

BEINFEST