Alex Trevino Is Just Happy to Be in Los Angeles

Alex Trevino, wearing his fourth new uniform jersey in two years, was posing for pictures with the other new Dodger, Ed Vande Berg, before the team’s annual Christmas party at Dodger Stadium Tuesday.

“Hey, Enos, they don’t have Santa Claus in Mexico,” Trevino called out to Enos Cabell.

Cabell put his arm around Fernando Valenzuela. “This is Santa Claus right here,” he said with a wide smile.

There was good cheer aplenty, as Dodger Vice President Al Campanis, still glowing about the two trades he made last week during baseball’s winter meetings, introduced Trevino and Vande Berg.

Trevino, who went from the Reds to the Braves to the Giants in the last two seasons, said all that travel was worth it, if that’s what it took to end up in Los Angeles.

“The highlight of my career,” Trevino said about the trade that brought the catcher here from San Francisco in exchange for Candy Maldonado.

“I’m Mexican, born and raised,” he said, which makes the deal especially sweet. “This town has a lot of Mexican people, and to get to play with a Mexican superstar like Fernando Valenzuela is going to be quite an experience.”

Cabell, who hit against Vande Berg when he was with the Tigers and Vande Berg was a rookie, said he thought the trades should help the Dodgers.

“I played in Seattle four years and I don’t think I saw this many cameras in all four years there,” said Vande Berg, the left-handed reliever acquired from the Mariners for Steve Yeager to satisfy the Dodgers’ top postseason priority.

Trevino said he had played with, and against Valenzuela in Mexico. “I was playing for the Orange Pickers and Fernando played on a team managed by my brother, Carlos,” Trevino said.

The Dodgers have held only informal contract talks with Valenzuela’s agent, Tony DeMarco, but DeMarco said that for the moment, anyway, the vibes are positive. “We feel very nice toward each other,” DeMarco said.

Bill Madlock, who showed up for lunch, said he’s working out as usual this winter and hopes to take some weight off his bad knee.

“I’m not going to get down to 180, 185, or 190, but I’ll get down below 200--even if it’s just 199 1/2.” said Madlock, who has been working out at the stadium on a program devised by trainer Bill Buhler.

Campanis reported that another weight-conscious Dodger, Pedro Guerrero, is playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic. Campanis said he’s playing first base for Escogido, the team managed by Dodger coach Manny Mota.

“He asked me if he could play first base and I said it was all right,” Campanis said. “He doesn’t want to have to run in the outfield.”

Asked if Guerrero might get tired of the monotony of playing baseball year-round, Campanis shook his head. “When you can swing the bat like that, you don’t have to think,” he said.

Cabell, who is leaving on a vacation trip to Rome today, is trying not to think about the meeting he is scheduled to have with Commissioner Peter Ueberroth next month, although no date has been set. Ueberroth said he planned to talk to all of the players involved in the Pittsburgh drug trials last summer. Cabell was one of the players who testified and acknowledged that he had used cocaine, while with the Houston Astros.

“I’m too old to worry about it,” said Cabell, who is 36. “There’s nothing I can do. All I can do is tell him what he wants to know and what I feel.

“All of that happened years ago,” said Cabell, when asked if he thought Ueberroth might take punitive action. “If I’m going to be judged on that, what can I say?

“If people do that (judge on the past), then we’re in trouble, because that means we believe people never change. And I think that would be bad for baseball, because no one will say anything in the future. They’ll be afraid to ask for help.”