Deadline Closes In for Angels and Their Three Free Agents

Are catcher Bob Boone, third baseman Doug DeCinces and left fielder Brian Downing down to their final two days with the Angels?

“It’s 50-50,” General Manager Mike Port said Tuesday of his chances to sign all three before Thursday’s 9 p.m. deadline.

Any free agent who remains unsigned through Thursday cannot re-sign with his 1986 team until May 1, which is almost a month after the start of the season.

The Angels’ unwillingness to offer a contract guarantee of more than one year has plagued the negotiations with Boone, 39, and DeCinces, 36. Both believe they are deserving of better.

The 36-year-old Downing, by contrast, may ultimately get the multiyear guarantee he seeks.

The apparent difference?

Now ticketed for Reggie Jackson’s basically sedentary assignment of designated hitter, Downing represents a lesser physical risk than Boone and DeCinces.

In addition, his 1986 guarantee of a comparatively modest $575,000 has room for growth. Boone made $700,000 last year. DeCinces was guaranteed $800,000 and made another $300,000 through incentives.

Tom Reich, the attorney who represents Downing, said Tuesday that he has had cordial and continuing negotiations with Port. “It could still go either way, but there has been progress,” he said.

Then, putting it another way, Reich contrasted Downing’s situation with those of two of his other free agents, Montreal outfielder Tim Raines and Detroit catcher Lance Parrish. “The jury is still out on Downing, but the other two are headed elsewhere,” he said. “There are no negotiations concerning Raines and Parrish.”

Raines made $1.5 million last year and has rejected a Montreal offer of $4.8 million for three years. Parrish made $850,000 last year and has rejected a Detroit offer of $1 million for one year.

In this second winter of the owners’ free-agent freeze-out, there have been no other offers for Raines, Parrish or any free agent who still has a chance of signing with his 1986 team.

Will that change after Thursday? Only time will tell. There is no precedent.

In response to the owners’ surprising unanimity of last winter and an absence of competing offers, Detroit’s Kirk Gibson and the Angels’ Donnie Moore, the biggest names in that free-agent pool, elected to re-sign with their respective teams on the eve of the deadline.

Now the uncertainty will be challenged by a group of quality players that includes Raines, Parrish, Andre Dawson, Bob Horner and Ray Knight, among others, including the three Angels, perhaps.

Will they be offered less than their own clubs offered?

Will they be humbled and forced to return to their former clubs on May 1, having received no offers at all?

The recent inability of Detroit’s Jack Morris, the winningest pitcher of the ‘80s, to interest the Angels, New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins or Philadelphia Phillies in his services is one dramatic illustration of the current economic climate.

Here’s another: When Roger Clemens, the American League’s Cy Young Award winner, opened his 1987 contract offer from the Boston Red Sox the other day, he was stunned to learn that it was for $360,000, the same as he made last year with his incentives included.

Reich, however, is not dissuaded.

He believes, at the least, that the premier free agents will encounter a modest market after Thursday.

“It won’t be like it once was,” he said. “It won’t be an auction or cavalcade, but I do believe there will be pockets of interest.

“Why do I believe that? Because I’ve never seen so many proud franchises with so many holes.”

The Angels could resemble Swiss cheese if all three of their free agents depart, but Port is mindful of how the Angels have been stung by multiyear guarantees to older players in the past.

“There are creative ways to bridge the differences,” he said, alluding to an option in the second year. “But we have to be cautious in the area of guarantees.”

Could DeCinces, who hit 26 home runs and drove in 96 runs last year, accept a one-year guarantee?

“That will be up to Doug to decide,” attorney Ron Shapiro said from his Baltimore home. “I’ve explained to him that it’s an unusual market, that there’s a collusion grievance being heard, that the market could offer him less than the Angels have. He’ll have to decide what his worth is and how his principles enter into it. We’re still talking with the Angels and looking for avenues of creativity.”

Reached at his Philadelphia home, attorney Arthur Rosenberg said that he and Boone were frustrated by an inability to contact and communicate with Port and were disappointed by the club’s one-year offer “at a substantial cut in pay.”

He said that Port had not responded to a proposal made by letter last Wednesday and that the Angels’ acquisition of catcher Butch Wynegar additionally complicated the club’s alleged interest in Boone.

Is there interest elsewhere in Boone?

“There’s definitely potential and interest elsewhere, but I can’t predict that will lead to meaningful offers,” Rosenberg said.

“If the (owners’) cartel holds ranks, it’s hard to know what will happen.”