Baseball / Ross Newhan : DeCinces Is Talking With the Japanese, but Dodgers Interest Him, Too

The Dodgers’ third-base blueprint calls for Steve Sax to make the move from second base and compete with the still unproven Jeff Hamilton and Tracy Woodson. The Dodgers could also fall back on Dave Anderson or Mike Sharperson or Mickey Hatcher.

“We’ve got depth there,” said Executive Vice President Fred Claire, which is like saying that your blind date had a nice personality.

It’s not exactly what you were looking for, and the Dodgers may not be through looking.

One intriguing possibility is the apparent availability of Doug DeCinces, the former Angel who is in serious negotations with representatives of a Japanese team. Those representatives, in fact, are scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles Monday to intensify their talks. It is suspected, however, that DeCinces still might be tempted to consider the Dodgers instead.

Would he prefer to remain on this side of the Pacific?

“I can’t really say one way or the other,” DeCinces, 37, said Friday. “I have to look at everything and see what’s right for me.

“Nothing is set yet.

“I’ve been negotiating with a Japanese team, but there’s a lot involved.”

There have also been calls from the Oakland A’s and the St. Louis Cardinals, not to mention DeCinces’ logical interest in the Dodgers.

Interest?

An understatement, perhaps.

Wouldn’t the Orange County resident love to car-pool with Don Sutton and prove to the Angels that they made a mistake when they unceremoniously released him even before the 1987 season ended?

“The Dodgers know I’m interested,” DeCinces said. “My attorney spoke with them again last week, at a time when Gary Gaetti was still their priority. I understand that.”

Do the Dodgers share his interest?

Claire left the impression that they might.

“I’m not prepared to make a statement today saying we’re not interested in Doug,” he said. “I’m not going to close the door to anything, but it’s not something we plan on acting on right away.

“It’s early January. There’s lots of time. But we would want to give it consideration reasonably soon. When you look at all the moves we’ve made, we want some stability to take shape before we get to spring training. It’s very important to the ballclub.

“All I can say is that we’ve asked Steve to make the move to third base, and we also want to give a chance to some of our young players.

“We’re aware Doug is interested, but we haven’t made a decision.”

Add DeCinces: If he passes on Japan and is rejected by the Dodgers, there are likely to be options for him with the A’s, as a designated hitter, or the Cardinals, who employed him during the final week of the ’87 season and now see him platooning with Mike Laga at first base, where there is something of a vacuum.

“Without Jack Clark for 162 games, we’re not even a .500 team,” Manager Whitey Herzog said. “Everyone else in the division has to be looking around and saying they’re better than us.”

The Cardinals averaged 5.3 runs a game with Clark in the lineup and 3.6 without him. Clark hit 35 home runs in 131 games. Only three other players in the entire St. Louis system hit 20 or more home runs. Laga hit 21 at Louisville and 1 in 17 games with the Cardinals, former UCLA catcher Todd Zeile hit 25 at Springfield, and catcher Mike Fitzgerald hit 27 at Arkansas.

One option the Cardinals have already begun to explore is Bob Horner, now returning from Japan as a free agent. Said Horner’s agent, Bucky Woy: “Horner would be a great deal for them. He can hit with Clark and he can’t be any more hurt (than Clark was).”

If Herzog gets his way, however, Horner will never become a Cardinal. The St. Louis manager said Friday: “I don’t like Horner. . . . He can’t hit and he can’t field.”

With Clark serving as the designated hitter in a potent lineup, the New York Yankees may attempt to trade Gary Ward or Dave Winfield for a much-needed pitcher. For the time being, however, Winfield is ticketed to play right field in an outfield that will have the touted Roberto Kelly playing center, allowing the pleased Rickey Henderson to return to left, the position at which he was once the game’s best.

A recent item in Morning Briefing quoted Oakland A’s Vice President Sandy Alderson as saying the Dodgers “panicked” when they traded Bob Welch and Matt Young to the A’s. Alderson read it and phoned to say it was “inaccurate.”

“I have never been critical of the Dodgers’ conduct at the meetings or of the outcome of that trade from their standpoint,” he said. “As I have said previously, the Dodgers conducted themselves professionally, acquired what they wanted and gave up no more than was fair. Criticism of them at the meetings was unfounded.

“However, I was unhappy with their signing of (outfielder) Mike Davis. Of course, we lost him as a player, and maybe that clouds my judgment. But I do think they paid too much. The A’s certainly were not a factor at the million-dollar level. Maybe the specter of another club’s interest caused them to go that high.”

Davis’ two-year contract with the Dodgers guarantees him $1,975,000.

The salary arbitration season has begun, with 148 players eligible to file before next Friday’s deadline. In the 12-year history of the process, the clubs have won 139 of 250 cases, but in only six instances has a player had his previous year’s salary reduced through arbitration.

The clubs, having learned how to control free agency, have taken their lickings in arbitration, though they have received some recent relief from the Major League Players Assn.

During the 1985 labor dispute, the union made its most significant concession, agreeing to raise the eligibility requirement for arbitration from two years of major league service to three.

In 1986, the last year that players with two years of service were eligible for arbitration, the average salary of players with between two and three years of service was $309,604.

With those players no longer eligible last year, the 1987 average salary for that group was $191,703, a 38.1% drop.

The Houston Astros’ Charlie Kerfeld, who went from 11 wins and 7 saves as a glib rookie to no wins and no saves as a sophomore who wasn’t quite so funny, is now at an Arizona fat farm, trying to turn 270 pounds into 240.

The Pennsylvania-based Ed Liberatore, long one of the Dodgers’ most prominent scouts, quietly left the organization Friday to join the scouting staff of the Baltimore Orioles.