TUCSON, ARIZ. ? While baseball’s big spenders are looking to save money for a change, the usually low-budget Philadelphia Phillies are ready to spend.

The Phillies started off the free-agent season Tuesday by making offers to Jim Thome, Tom Glavine and David Bell. The three offers are believed to be worth more than $100 million.

GM Ed Wade didn’t wait long, e-mailing an offer to Thome’s agent, Pat Rooney, at 11:01 a.m. – the first possible minute allowed. He also met with Glavine’s agent, Gregg Clifton, and talked directly to Bell on Tuesday.

“I’d like to get three voice mail messages tomorrow saying yes,” Wade said from the GM meetings. “But I’m not going to bank on it.”

That’s because some players are waiting to see if more teams will join bidding.

Glavine is waiting to visit the cities of the teams that are interested in him. The New York Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Texas have contacted Clifton.

For now, most of the big spenders are interested in cutting payroll. The Yankees, Mets, Rangers and Colorado would like to dump salaries before making moves. Atlanta is just hoping to be able to hold on to one of its free-agent aces – Glavine and Greg Maddux.

“Our payroll will be lower next year,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. “I don’t know if it will be via trade or the free-agent market or a combination of the two. How we’re going to do it, I’m not sure. But we will do it.”

The Yankees would like to trade Raul Mondesi, Rondell White or Sterling Hitchcock to free up money. But they won’t hesitate to make a run at Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui. Cashman and three Yankees officials will travel to Japan later this week.

The Phillies aren’t waiting.

They are believed to have offered Thome $75 million for five years, at least $10 million a year for three years to Glavine and a three-year deal for Bell, who hired Tom Reich and Adam Katz as his agents this week.

Wade, who would only characterize the offers as “significant, sincere and sufficient,” isn’t expecting a quick response.

“This is an important decision for the players,” he said. “They all have emotional and other ties with their old clubs. We remain hopeful this will be resolved in our favor.”

The Indians offered Thome a contract that is worth about $45 million for four years and are waiting to hear back from Rooney.

“The ball is in their court,” GM Mark Shapiro said.

Part of the reason for the slow movement is a new labor deal that increases revenue sharing and places a luxury tax on payrolls over $117 million next season.

Many teams that are usually buyers at this time of year are first looking to free up money.

The Phillies have already done that. They had the 16th-highest payroll last season, at just under $60 million. Wade said that would increase to about $70 million next season.

The Phillies, who will move into a new ballpark in 2004, freed up money when they traded Scott Rolen in July, and Robert Person, Terry Adams and Doug Glanville became free agents after the season.