Dave Righetti Files for Free Agency

Dave Righetti of the New York Yankees became the first free agent of 1987 when he filed six minutes after midnight Monday, one of 12 players who filed on the first permissible day.

“The surest way of establishing in an emphatic way that David was interested in testing the free-agent market was to file six minutes after he was permitted to,” Bill Goodstein, the reliever’s attorney, said Monday. “That was a way of saying to everyone who doesn’t believe him that he is interested in finding if teams are interested in him.”

Also filing were pitchers Gary Lavelle of the Oakland Athletics, Gary Lucas of the Angels, David Palmer of the Atlanta Braves, Bill Gullickson of the Yankees and John Candelaria of the New York Mets.

Other players filing were Bob Dernier of the Chicago Cubs, Tom Paciorek of the Texas Rangers, Bruce Bochy of the San Diego Padres, Bill Madlock of the Detroit Tigers, Terry Harper of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Dave Henderson of the San Francisco Giants.

“I don’t think there will be a repeat of 1985 and 1986,” Goodstein said, referring to the clubs’ refusal to sign free agents. That led to two collusion grievances, one already won by the players.

“I think there will be a pursuit of selected free agents. I had conversations with teams that said they lost 41 games by one run after the seventh inning. They think someone like Dave can make the different between 70 wins and 90 wins.”

Righetti was 8-6 with 31 saves this season after getting a record-setting 46 saves in 1986.