Angels’ Effort May Be All for Naught

NAPLES, Fla. —  The Angels’ Plan A, for attractive: Sign Mo Vaughn, move Darin Erstad from first base to center field, trade Jim Edmonds for a top starting pitcher. But the Boston Red Sox refuse to abandon Vaughn so easily, and Edmonds could foil Plan A by himself.

The Red Sox on Monday offered Vaughn a five-year contract worth at least $60 million, baseball sources said, three days after the Angels bid six years and $72 million. The Angels, exploring alternatives to their top targets of Vaughn and pitcher Randy Johnson, also have offered a contract to pitcher Todd Stottlemyre.

Boston General Manager Dan Duquette said he expects Vaughn to give the Red Sox an answer soon, possibly today.

“We made a very substantial offer, we made a fair market-value offer, and I think this will probably be resolved in a couple of days,” said Duquette, who didn’t give Vaughn a deadline to accept the offer. “I think we’re going to hear from them quickly because I think they want to get this done. Hopefully, this will lead to a deal.”

Vaughn told WBZ-TV in Boston on Sunday he hoped to decide “in the next three or four days. I don’t plan to string this out.”

In July, Vaughn rejected a four-year, $37.5-million offer from Red Sox. He is seeking a deal comparable to the six-year, $75-million package the Red Sox gave pitcher Pedro Martinez last winter, and the Angels--the only other club believed to be aggressively pursuing Vaughn--anted up.

“I don’t know what they offered, and it really doesn’t matter to me,” Duquette said. “I learned long ago not to try to predict these things because they change too often, but we feel like we made a good offer.”

The agent for Stottlemyre, Tony Attanasio, confirmed the Angels’ bid but declined to discuss its length or value.

Attanasio said a four-year contract would be required. Stottlemyre could command $25 to $30 million, sources say, maybe more should he wait for the losing teams in the Johnson and Kevin Brown sweepstakes to join the bidding. Attanasio, however, said Stottlemyre would not necessarily wait.

“We know what the market is for Todd Stottlemyre,” Attanasio said. “We don’t care what Brown and Johnson do.”

The Angels have been willing to trade Edmonds for an ace pitcher virtually from the day he signed his four-year contract in 1996, but a new wrinkle complicates the annual ritual. Edmonds completed his fifth full season this year, earning him the right to exercise the same trade demand pitcher Jeff Shaw threatened to invoke with the Dodgers.

Edmonds’ contract guarantees him $3.95 million next year, and a $4.65-million option for the 2000 season should become guaranteed so long as he stays healthy in 1999. Veterans traded in the middle of a multiyear contract have the option to demand another trade after the first season with the new team.

That scenario could sway teams against trading a proven pitcher for perhaps one season of Edmonds. When the Cincinnati Reds traded Shaw, the Dodgers yielded prospects Paul Konerko and Dennis Reyes.

“I don’t think a team would trade a top player for Jim Edmonds, knowing that at the end of the season he could say he’s out of there,” said Paul Cohen, the agent for Edmonds.

Cohen said he and Edmonds discussed the situation at length Sunday. Another team could--and probably would--seek the Angels’ permission to negotiate a new contract with Edmonds before finalizing a trade.

The Dodgers are no longer in the running for Vaughn and their signing of free-agent center fielder Devon White last week apparently killed any possible deal involving Edmonds.

Although the Angels could discuss sending Edmonds to the Yankees (for Andy Pettitte) or Braves (for Denny Neagle), Edmonds, a lifelong Southern California resident, wants to stay home and play with the Angels, Cohen said.

“He likes it here,” Cohen said. “All things being equal, he’d like to stay here. If he’s going to be used as part of a package, he now has a legal right which, at this point, he could exercise . . . It’s at least as likely he would exercise it as he would not.”

Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi did not return telephone calls seeking comment.