Dodgers Seem Set on Trade : L.A. Would Get Griffin, Orosco, Send Welch to A’s

As of 2 a.m. today, about five hours before he was scheduled to leave Texas, Fred Claire, executive vice president of the Dodgers, had apparently consummated a three-way trade with the Oakland Athletics and the New York Mets, shaking the perception here that he and his staff have been paralyzed by indecision.

The same trade that seemed dead Wednesday night resurfaced Thursday, the day after baseball’s winter meetings officially ended and several hours after Claire had conducted a noon media briefing in which he said that all trade avenues seemed temporarily closed, including the blockbuster proposition that would have sent Pedro Guerrero to the Detroit Tigers for Kirk Gibson.

That deal seems comatose at best, but as Thursday yielded to Friday here, the possibility that the Dodgers could get shortstop Alfredo Griffin from the A’s and relief pitcher Jesse Orosco from the Mets had seemed to become a reality.

As reshaped, it is believed that the deal will send Bob Welch to the A’s for Griffin, with the rest of it uncertain.

Orosco, of course, would go to the Dodgers, with the suspicion that Met shortstop Rafael Santana and outfielder Mookie Wilson would head, perhaps, for the A’s.

The major problem seemed to have been satisfying the Mets since it was they who originally wanted Welch and who have been most critical of the Dodgers’ negotiating philosophy.

“I can’t confirm anything at this time,” A’s General Manager Sandy Alderson said of the three-way trade at 2 a.m. “It’s probable that we’ll have an announcement.”

A Dodger spokesman said that a joint morning press conference was likely.

“I’ve tried not to close any doors,” Claire had said at noon Thursday, when it appeared that his serious negotiations were done and he would definitely be leaving Texas, having only accomplished some groundwork.

“I see a number of things carrying over. What comes from conversations next spring, next week or whenever remains to be seen.”

Some clubs, however, had seemed to have seen enough of the Dodgers.

The lobby view was that they may have attempted to do too much, holding up a number of clubs in the process. The view was that the Dodgers, forgetting that every trade is a risk, simply couldn’t pull the trigger.

Said Joe McIlvaine, Met executive vice president, before renewing negotiations: “There did seem to be some indecision and confusion there. We thought we had a deal, kept waiting for an answer and never heard. We’re dealing with new people. They’re afraid to put the pedal to the metal.”

Said an associate: “We’ve spent so much time with the Dodgers that it seemed like they were working for us, but I’m glad they aren’t.”

A high-level executive of the Blue Jays, having spent a comparable amount of time with the Dodgers, was a bit kinder.

“They’re just being very cautious,” he said. “They want to be able to justify what they get to the media and their fans. I think they want to rebuild and win in the same year, and that’s difficult to do.”

Responded Claire:

“It wasn’t our intention to hold up the meetings, and I don’t think we did.

“Everyone has a right to their opinion, but we haven’t intended to do anything but improve the club and keep people informed. We identified our needs and stayed after them.

“Whatever judgments or comments have been made, that’s up to others, but we never once told another club not to do anything until they talked to us again.

“Some clubs may have decided that we had the player they wanted and that they didn’t want to talk to any other club, but that’s their decision.

“The bottom line is that in any trade discussion there are many factors. Some are more complicated than others, and many of those go beyond the basic issue of player evaluation.”

The Guerrero-Gibson trade, extremely hot late Wednesday afternoon, according to a Dodger source, dissolved amid the complications. Tiger General Manager Bill Lajoie called Gibson Thursday and said: “It’s off.”

The most significant complication stemmed from Gibson’s role as a victim of the owners free agent collusion in the winter of 1985-86. A penalty trial is in process. Gibson is likely to receive some measure of indemnification.

The Dodgers, understandably, sought a clear picture of the situation, a source said, and had been pursuing it with lawyers from the owners’ Player Relations Committee.

There was unconfirmed speculation that the Dodgers were willing to offer Gibson a two-year contract extension at $1.7 million a year to waive his rights to indemnification.

Barry Rona, the PRC’s legal counsel, said Thursday that both clubs had been examining the contingencies with members of his staff.

Rona said he wasn’t involved directly and didn’t know if the Dodgers sought the PRC’s blessing before agreeing to the deal, but a Detroit source said it collapsed when the PRC withheld that blessing.

Said Lajoie, alluding to the Dodgers concern for the legalities: “They complicated something that is not that complicated.”

Claire said he would not discuss the specifics of any potential deal. His actions here were defended by Alderson, who said the Dodgers had the one player (Welch) that was coveted by several clubs and were not to be criticized for attempting to make the right move with him.

“If some clubs got frustrated when the Dodgers didn’t jump at their offers, that wasn’t Fred’s fault.”

Nevertheless, the Mets and Dodgers, for example, had met over the course of several days before the Dodgers finally decided, a source said, that they wanted to eliminate Santana from a package that would have also sent Orosco and Wilson to Los Angeles for Welch and a prospect that had yet to be agreed upon.

A Met executive insisted that throughout their negotiations the Dodgers made references to their need to discuss it with O’Malley.

Said the executive: “We finally concluded that O’Malley didn’t want to run the risk of getting burned again (as the Dodgers did in the deal that sent Sid Fernandez to New York).”

O’Malley had remained through the negotiations of Wednesday night, then left Thursday morning and couldn’t be reached.

The Blue Jays had also seemed frustrated by their negotiations with the Dodgers.

Of their bid for Welch, a member of the Toronto staff said: “We’d give them two names and they’d want three. We’d give them three names and they’d want four.”

Said Blue Jay General Manager Pat Gillick: “The Dodgers have a new general manager. They may be moving slowly because of that.”

The new general manager said that he himself was growing frustrated by the failure to have made a deal: “but I’m not going to be forced into making a trade just to make a trade. I don’t want to get down, I just want to keep after it.”

Is he concerned about fan reaction?

“My main concern is how we play in ‘88,” Claire said. “If we leave without making a trade, I stated that as a possibility before we got here. So if there’s heat, I’d rather heat in December rather than July and August.”