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.

“I’ll have more of a chance being an everyday player there. I’ve also heard nothing but positive things about (Pirate manager) Chuck Tanner. Brian Downing told me he’s the best manager he’s ever played for, and Brian and I are a lot alike.”

Of Mauch’s spring decision to make Jackson his right fielder, Brown said he had remained disappointed with his lack of playing time and confused as to his role. He said Mauch had his mind made up, that he never had a chance in the spring. “He spent much of his time psyching Reggie up and psyching Mike out,” Brown said of Mauch.

He also said that the decision to play a hitter of Jackson’s caliber was a legitimate one.

“You don’t have to justify playing a Reggie Jackson,” Brown said, “but they did it by making me look bad. I mean, they didn’t have to do it by playing me three or four innings a day and then saying Mike Brown hasn’t done this or that. There was no reason to have to justify playing Reggie at my expense.”

Of the players involved Friday, Brown said the Angels seemed to have gotten the best of it “but maybe I can help turn it around. It was going to be tough becoming an every day player here. Nobody plays every day.” Brown laughed, reflecting on the fact that he and Clements had been road roommates with the Angels. “I guess we must have kept a dirty room,” he said.

HOW THEY HAVE PERFORMED THIS SEASON

The 1985 statistics and ages for the five players involved in the trade between the Angels and Pirates Friday. The Pirates will also receive a player to be named later.

JOHN CANDELARIA AGE G W-L SV ERA 31 37 2-4 8 3.64

GEORGE HENDRICK

AGE AB HR RB AVG 35 256 2 25 .230

AL HOLLAND AGE G W-L SV ERA 32 41 1-4 5 3.45

MIKE BROWN AGE AB HR RB AVG 25 153 4 20 .268

PAT CLEMENTS

AGE G W-L SV ERA 23 41 5-0 1 3.34