Angels Go for Pennant Race Maturity : Candelaria, Holland, Hendrick Obtained in Trade With Pirates

The youth movement made it only to August.

The Angels scrubbed a measure of it Friday in something of a characteristic bid for immediate victory at any price.

They traded outfielder Mike Brown, 25, relief pitcher Pat Clements, 23, and a player off the 40-man roster to be agreed upon within six months to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

They also took on a minimum of $2.5 million in guaranteed salaries, obtaining pitchers John Candelaria, 31, and Al Holland, 32, and outfielder George Hendrick, 35.

Said Manager Gene Mauch:

“When you add three quality people while losing two, you must be better off. I feel we’ve enhanced our chances of getting done what we want to get done this year and stabilized our whole system. The kids can’t do it alone.”

The financially troubled Pirates unloaded a significant portion of their budget, in addition to two players, Candelaria and Hendrick, who had asked to be traded, and a third, Holland, who had said he would not re-sign with the Pirates when he becomes a free agent at the end of the season.

Pittsburgh General Manager Joe Brown said that the financial aspect was a secondary consideration, though it has been reported that he would trade Candelaria only if the interested club also took on the high salary of a Bill Madlock or a Jason Thompson, or in this case, Hendrick. Brown said the trade was designed essentially to improve the Pirates’ attitude.

“We want people who want to play here,” Brown said in a Pittsburgh press conference at which he was particularly critical of Hendrick. “When you can’t change the attitude, you change the uniform.”

It makes dollars and sense to the Pirates.

The Angels?

They obviously hope that the change will provide an elixir for three proven players capable of helping them win now.

The Angels began a home stand Friday night with a two-game lead over Kansas City in the American League West. It had been a 7 1/2-game lead 10 days earlier.

Candelaria, who has pitched only in relief this year, will join the Angels’ rotation and start against Minnesota Sunday. Holland will replace Clements as the left-handed relief specialist. Hendrick, who has been nursing a pulled thigh muscle, will assume Brown’s role as a pinch-hitter, designated hitter and right-handed hitting counterpart to Reggie Jackson in right field.

Mauch said he didn’t want to put any limits on Hendrick’s role because he still has the ability to carry a club, and the Angels weren’t pressured into taking him just to get Candelaria.

The blueprint, however, may be worthless after Tuesday, when the players are scheduled to strike.

The trade, in other words, represents strange timing for a club allegedly committed to rebuilding from within and reluctant to take on the major contracts of aging veterans.

General Manager Mike Port said the strike had been a consideration, but that Angel players haven’t let it become a distraction, so neither would the front office. He disputed the theory that the Angels have returned to their previous philosophy.

“I don’t feel we sacrificed the future to the extent some may feel,” he said. “We could have made other deals and sacrificed a Mark McLemore or Devon White or Kirk McCaskill, but that would have been cutting into the future more than I cared.”

One such deal may have netted Bert Blyleven, whom Cleveland traded to Minnesota Thursday. Blyleven will make his first start for the Twins at Anaheim Stadium tonight.

The possibility of a deal involving Candelaria, Port said, has been discussed since March. The failure to obtain Blyleven didn’t put an increased emphasis on the Candelaria talks because “we were still afloat on other fronts as well,” he said. Neither, he said, were the Angels pressured into a deal because of their diminishing division lead.

“There was never any talk that we better do something,” agreed Mauch. “I mean, if you had told me six months ago that we’d be two up on Aug. 1, I’d have signed a contract for it right then.”

The three new players are expected to arrive before tonight’s game in which Geoff Zahn, on the disabled list since April 30, will return to face Minnesota.

The likelihood is that rookie Urbano Lugo will be optioned to Edmonton, along with outfielder Rufino Linares.

The rotation now has Zahn, Candelaria, McCaskill, Ron Romanick and Mike Witt. Port, a bit euphoric over his first major trade, said it is the equal of any in baseball. The bullpen now features a potential left and right-handed stopper in Holland and Donnie Moore, along with Stewart Cliburn, Luis Sanchez and Jim Slaton.

The three former Pirates could all be gone before the 1986 season starts. Holland is eligible for free agency in October. Candelaria and Hendrick, as players traded with multiyear contracts, have the right to demand a trade at the end of the season, in which case the Angels would have to trade them by March 15 or they would become free agents.

Port said all three expressed delight with the trade in Friday phone conversations, and he was confident they would soon be comparing Anaheim to nirvana, particularly Hendrick, who resides during the winter in Diamond Bar.

Hendrick, Port said, may not start talking to the media, but his performance and outlook is certain to improve. A .283 hitter over 15 previous seasons, Hendrick was hitting .230 with 2 homers and 25 RBIs for the Pirates. His reported failure to hustle had been accompanied by several requests to be traded.

“George is a unique person who does things his way,” Joe Brown said from Pittsburgh. “You can get away with it when you produce, but he didn’t produce here. I found him personable and intelligent, but I didn’t care for the way he performed on the field.

“He did start running as soon as I told him he was traded today.”

Hendrick, who will start in right field Sunday against left-hander Frank Viola, is guaranteed a $600,000 salary in both 1986 and ’87. Candelaria, who was unavailable for comment, is guaranteed $500,000 next year, with the Angels also having an option on 1987 and ’88 at $550,000. It would cost the Angels $200,000 to pass on the options.

The Candy Man was 122-80 in 11 seasons as a starter and 2-4 with 9 saves as a relief pitcher this season, an assignment he was given in March, prompting him to kick his glove over the outfield fence in Bradenton, Fla, and extend his two-year series of trade requests.

Candelaria’s son, 18-month-old John Robert Jr., has been in a coma since Christmas Day, when he fell into the family’s swimming pool.

“Candy has said a lot of things he wouldn’t have said had there been less pressure on him,” Joe Brown said Friday. “He’s a good guy. We had a long talk, and he told me was grateful about the trade.”

So was Holland, who has 73 career saves (29 last year) but was 1-4 with five saves in 41 games with the Phillies and Pirates this year.

Holland said by phone Friday that his only problem has been a lack of consistent work, and he is excited about the prospect of getting it with the Angels.

Of the reports that Holland has been overweight, Mauch said, “. . . he wouldn’t be the first reliever to have excess weight, but they tell me he’s in better shape than advertised.”

Clements, who made the jump from Double-A to fill a need for a left-hander in the Angel bullpen, was 5-0 with one save but was having problems in his second trip around the league. The touted Brown had 20 RBIs and a .268 average in 153 at-bats. He will become the regular Pittsburgh right fielder, but his hopes of replacing Fred Lynn as the Angel regular were dashed in March when Reggie Jackson was given the job.

Reached at his apartment in Orange, Brown said he was surprised by the timing of the trade but reminded of 1982 when the Angels traded Tom Brunansky, giving Brunansky a chance to attain his potential with Minnesota.

“Pittsburgh is kind of down right now,” he said, “but any club can come back with the right combination of players. Maybe the young blood can go over there and help turn it around. I have to look on this from a positive standpoint. I was starting to stagnate here. The manager never seemed to have the faith in me that he had in Gary Pettis or Dick Schofield.

Career Statistics of the Newest Angels

John Candelaria

Year Team G W L IP H ER BB SO SHO SV 1975 Pittsburgh 18 8 6 121 95 37 36 95 1 0 1976 Pittsburgh 22 16 7 220 173 77 60 138 4 0 1977 Pittsburgh 33 20 5 231 197 60 50 133 1 0 1978 Pittsburgh 30 12 11 189 191 68 49 94 1 0 1979 Pittsburgh 33 14 9 207 201 74 41 101 0 0 1980 Pittsburgh 35 11 14 233 246 104 50 97 0 0 1981 Pittsburgh 6 2 2 41 42 16 11 14 0 0 1982 Pittsburgh 31 12 7 174.2 166 57 37 133 1 0 1983 Pittsburgh 33 15 8 197.2 191 71 45 157 0 0 1984 Pittsburgh 33 12 11 185.1 179 56 34 133 1 0 1985 Pittsburgh 37 2 4 54.1 57 22 14 47 0 9 Totals 311 124 84 1854 1738 642 427 1142 9 9

Year ERA 1975 2.75 1976 3.15 1977 2.34 1978 3.24 1979 3.22 1980 4.02 1981 3.51 1982 2.94 1983 3.23 1984 2.72 1985 3.64 3.12

George Hendrick

Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB Ave. 1971 Oakland 42 114 8 27 4 1 0 8 0 .237 1972 Oakland 58 121 10 22 1 0 4 15 3 .182 1973 Cleveland 113 440 64 118 18 0 21 61 7 .268 1974 Cleveland 139 495 65 138 23 1 19 67 6 .279 1975 Cleveland 145 561 82 145 21 2 24 86 6 .258 1976 Cleveland 149 551 75 146 20 3 25 81 4 .265 1977 San Diego 152 541 75 168 25 2 23 81 1 .311 1978 SD-St.Louis 138 493 64 137 31 1 20 75 2 .278 1979 St. Louis 140 493 67 148 27 1 16 75 2 .300 1980 St. Louis 150 572 73 173 33 2 25 109 6 .302 1981 St. Louis 101 394 67 112 19 3 18 61 4 .284 1982 St. Louis 136 515 65 145 20 5 19 104 3 .282 1983 St. Louis 144 529 73 168 33 3 18 97 3 .318 1984 St. Louis 120 441 57 122 28 1 9 69 0 .277 1985 Pittsburgh 69 256 23 59 15 0 2 25 1 .230 Totals 1983 6319 940 1828 318 25 243 1014 48 .289

Al Holland

Year Team G W L IP H ER BB SO SHO SV 1977 Pittsburgh 2 0 0 2 4 2 1 0 0 0 1979 San Francisco 3 0 0 7 3 0 5 7 0 0 1980 San Francisco 54 5 3 82 71 16 34 65 0 7 1981 San Francisco 47 7 5 101 87 27 44 78 0 7 1982 San Francisco 58 7 3 129.2 115 48 40 97 0 5 1983 Philadelphia 68 8 4 91.2 63 23 30 100 0 25 1984 Philadelphia 68 5 10 98.1 82 37 30 61 0 29 1985 Phila-Pitt 41 1 4 62.2 53 24 21 48 0 5 Totals 341 33 29 573.1 478 177 205 456 0 78

Year ERA 1977 9.00 1979 0.00 1980 1.76 1981 2.41 1982 3.33 1983 2.26 1984 3.39 1985 3.45 2.79