Joyner and White Will Be Renewed

Wally Joyner and the rest of the Angels’ unsigned players hit the wall Thursday, running up against General Manager Mike Port’s self-imposed March 3 cutoff for contract negotiations.

As expected, some came away more bruised than others.

Emerging relatively unscathed and satisfied were pitcher Kirk McCaskill, third baseman Jack Howell and second baseman Mark McLemore, all of whom agreed to terms for the 1988 season before the Angel team bus began its afternoon drive across the Arizona desert to Yuma, where the Angels will open their exhibition schedule today against the San Diego Padres.

Joyner and center fielder Devon White, however, spent three long hours on that bus stewing over what happened--or, rather, what didn’t happen--during their final-hour talks with Port.

And by the time they got to Yuma, Joyner and White, along with pitchers DeWayne Buice and Urbano Lugo, learned that they will have their contracts automatically renewed by the club--according to terms decided by Port.

In a brief statment Thursday night, Port announced the signings of six players--Howell, McLemore, McCaskill, infielder Gus Polidor and pitchers Chuck Finley and Joe Johnson--while adding, rather cryptically: “The club’s plan, allowing for and appreciating communicative problems otherwise, will be to appropriately renew all other contracts.”

What that figures to mean for Joyner is what was widely expected since he reported to camp last Saturday--a renewal at about $340,000. White’s final offer from the Angels was believed to have been in the $160,000 range.

“I halfway expected that Wally was going to be renewed,” said Joyner’s agent, Barry Axelrod, Thursday afternoon. “As we said last week, since there had been no new negotiations and since we didn’t want to drive everybody crazy, we decided to give Mike the lowest offer we would sign for and leave it at that. Why continue to beat your head against the wall?

“When Mike called me back and said he couldn’t meet our numbers, our thinking was that Wally was going to be renewed.”

Thursday afternoon, however, Axelrod phoned Port to make one last-ditch attempt at a compromise--a phone call prompted, according to Axelrod, by the deal struck between Mark McGwire and the Oakland A’s Wednesday.

McGwire, entering his second season, signed for a base salary of $250,000, plus a $10,000 bonus for games played, another $20,000 bonus for making the All-Star team and additional incentives that could bring his 1988 salary above $320,000.

In 1986, Joyner, entering his second season, signed for a base salary of $165,000.

“Including incentives, McGwire can make just about what Wally will be making this year,” Axelrod said. “Wally was less than excited when he saw the flash on TV (Wednesday night) about McGwire.

“My reason today for calling Mike was to voice additional frustration by Wally and me. All throughout our discussions, we kept hearing about ‘certain constraints’ and ‘the climate that exists’ for first-year and second-year players. It appeared that every baseball team was coming into line that way.

“On that basis, Wally was willing to accept it. If everybody else is being treated like this, Wally decided he could live with it.”

McGwire’s signing, Axelrod said, changed that.

“The A’s said they were rewarding McGwire for an exceptional performance,” Axelrod said. “Well, Wally had an exceptional season, too. All this talk about salary structure was more or less used as a matter of convenience by the Angels.”

Before leaving for Yuma, Joyner was asked if he expected to be renewed by the end of the day.

“I expect to be treated fairly,” he replied. “We’ll see if I am.”

Joyner said he was also miffed at Port’s seeming indifference during the final day of negotiations, noting the general manager’s attendance at Thursday’s intrasquad game while phone messages from Axelrod went unanswered.

“Barry had two calls in to Mike today, and he (Port) spends the whole afternoon watching the scrimmage,” Joyner said. “It’s not like he hasn’t got better things to do.”

Axelrod eventually got through to Port, but apparently to no avail.

White, too, was frustrated by the day’s events. Statistically, White’s 1987 season was virtually a carbon-copy of Texas outfielder Ruben Sierra’s--a season that earned Sierra a base salary of $230,000. Both players hit .263, were close in home runs, hits and runs scored--but apparently far apart in the offers tendered them by their respective clubs.

“As far as Mike Port is concerned, he’s just being difficult, the way he’s treating me,” White said. “I’m not really surprised, though. I kind of expected it, the way he’s been treating Wally.”

Somewhat happier, by day’s end, were Howell, McCaskill and McLemore.

Howell, after splitting his first full major league season between third base and the outfield, batting .245 with 23 home runs, reportedly signed for $200,000.

McCaskill, coming off an injury-shortened season of 4-6, is believed to have signed for about $240,000, representing a slight raise from the $232,000 he received in 1987.

And McLemore, a .236 hitter with 25 stolen bases in his rookie season, agreed to terms for about $125,000, plus a bonus clause for winning a Gold Glove.

“Mike Port is very tough to negotiate with,” said Jeff Moorad, McLemore’s agent. “But I think it’s important to point out, with regards to Mark McLemore, that Mike was fair.”