Dodgers’ Pena Must Take a 20% Pay Cut

Form held in baseball’s salary arbitration hearings Saturday when an arbitrator ruled that Dodger pitcher Alejandro Pena must accept the maximum 20% pay cut for the 1987 season.

Pena, who has spent most of the last two seasons recovering from a serious shoulder injury, had asked for $367,500, a slight raise over his 1986 salary of $350,000. But the Dodgers submitted a bid of $280,000.

Arbitrator Donald Sears, who met with both sides Friday morning, sided with the Dodgers. Thus, Pena will make $280,000 this season.

That decision makes it 3 for 3 for management in arbitration cases involving proposed salary cuts for pitchers. The Dodgers have been involved in two of the rulings, the first being the club’s successful bid to cut Orel Hershiser’s salary from $1 million in 1986 to $800,000 this season. On Friday, Atlanta Brave pitcher Jim Acker lost his case and will take a $17,000 pay cut.

The Dodgers argued that Pena’s statistics over the last two seasons did not merit a raise. Pena missed nearly all of the 1985 season recovering from surgery to remove severe cartilage damage in his right shoulder, but he returned last season to post a 1-2 record with a 4.89 earned-run average in 24 appearances.

However, Pena has been throwing well--and hard--during periodic winter workouts at Dodger Stadium. Earlier in the winter in Domincan Republic play, Pena had a 2-5 record but a respectable 2.85 ERA in 56 innings.

“(Pena) won one game for us the last two years, and if you don’t contribute, you can’t justify paying a player that type of money,” Al Campanis, Dodger vice president, said Saturday night. “Back a couple years ago, Pena won the ERA title (2.48 in 1984) and his salary went up (to $350,000). We paid him that money in ’85 and ’86. Now, he doesn’t merit that salary.”

Pena could not be reached for comment Saturday night. But earlier in the day, Tom Reich, his agent, said that Pena did not deserve a $70,000 cut in pay.

“He has busted his butt to get back from a terrible injury and tried his hardest the past two years,” Reich said. “From what I can see in his Domincan league performance and his workouts, he is throwing the ball great and is back.”

Still, given the frugal climate in most arbitration hearings this year, this decision was not surprising. In fact, Reich had called Campanis last week in an effort to settle the case without going to arbitration, but the Dodgers refused to negotiate.

“The Dodgers gave him no choice,” Reich said. “There was not even a thought of compromise on their part. All I can say is that Alejandro Pena had his day in court, and we presented our case the best we could.”

Campanis said he hopes that Pena doesn’t take the decision personally, even though the club’s arbitration strategy has been described as hard-line. “Hopefully, Pena can make our ballteam,” Campanis said. “There’s a lot of competition for the fifth starter.”

Pena has been mentioned in several trade rumors since the winter meetings.