Joyner’s Frustration Shows; Angels, White Compromise

Wally Joyner insisted all along that the breakdown in his salary talks wouldn’t mean a breakdown in performance, that he could put the specter of a renewed contract out of sight and out of mind once he had an Angel uniform on his back.

So what happened Thursday afternoon, once Joyner finally got the word that Angel General Manager Mike Port had automatically renewed his contract for a base salary of $340,000?

He committed two errors in one inning, leading to three unearned runs for the Cleveland Indians, leading to a 6-2 Angel exhibition loss at Hi Corbett Field.

“I wasn’t in the ballgame very much,” Joyner admitted. “I’m not making any excuses, but I just wasn’t in the game. Today’s the only game it should affect me.”

Joyner knew the renewal was coming--he fully expected as much as soon as he agreed to report to camp Feb. 27--yet one week after Port had said he planned to renew all unsigned players barring “communicative problems,” Joyner claimed to be surprised by the Angels’ move.

Surprised, he said, that the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants could reach agreements with their star first basemen--Mark McGwire and Will Clark--and the Angels could not.

Surprised that the Angels could appease teammate Devon White with an 11th-hour compromise while Port and Joyner’s representatives remained polarized.

Surprised, too, that White, coming off a rookie season with 87 runs batted in, would settle Thursday for $185,000--$20,000 more than the base salary Joyner received after his 100-RBI rookie season of 1986.

“I’d like to know what I did wrong,” Joyner said of his failed negotiations. “(The Angels) worked with Devo. They didn’t work with me. I heard no new offers during the last week.”

Although Port imposed a March 3 deadline for contract negotiations, he seemed to leave a loophole open for White and Joyner when he said extra time would be allotted “because a couple of circumstances prevented me from being available and not getting back to agents.”

One phone call Port returned was to Sam Schreiber, White’s Philadelphia-based agent. And that call helped avert what seemed a certain renewal for White, with the Angels improving upon their earlier offer of $170,000 and White relenting on his proposal of $190,000 plus incentives.

White’s agreement reportedly calls for a straight salary of $185,000, with no incentives.

“We appreciate Mike Port giving us the extra days,” White said. “We came up with a different offer, he thought about it, and he got back to us.”

The extra days did not benefit Joyner, though, apparently because the sides, as agent Barry Axelrod put it, had become “crystallized” by early last week. The Angels wouldn’t budge from $340,000, and Joyner termed his $395,000 proposal “the lowest number I could feel comfortable with.”

So, why the delay in announcing the renewal?

“You just don’t say, ‘OK, you’re renewed’ and satisfy all the legal requirements,” Port said. “There were still i’s to be dotted and t’s to be crossed, so to speak.”

Port said that he had kept White’s negotiations alive because “we were close as of (last) Thursday and in my comings and goings, I was unable to get back to Sam Schreiber. In fairness, I felt I should return his phone call.”

And Joyner?

“I didn’t have any lingering phone calls in his regard,” Port said.

Port told Joyner Wednesday evening that he was officially going to be renewed at the club’s last offer--$340,000, plus a $100,000 bonus if he becomes the American League’s most valuable player and $50,000 apiece for being voted MVP of the playoffs and World Series.

In player agent-speak, those incentives are not very “makeable”--bad bonuses, in other words.

Joyner said he asked Port why he hadn’t used Oakland’s successful negotiations with McGwire and San Francisco’s strategy with Clark as examples. McGwire, entering his second season, signed for $250,000 plus “makeable” incentives that could bring his 1988 salary to more than $300,000. Clark, coming off a 91-RBI second season, received a $200,000 raise--from $120,000 to $320,000.

Joyner, who batted .285 with 34 home runs and 117 RBIs during his second season, will receive a $175,000 raise in base salary. Joyner made a total of $180,000 in 1987--$165,000 in base salary and a $15,000 bonus for games played.

“I asked Mike about McGwire and Clark,” Joyner said. “He told me, ‘If they played for me, I’d have tried to sign them for less than they got.’ ”

Joyner said the renewal left him bitter--”Wouldn’t you be?” he asked--but downplayed the effect it might have on his 1988 season.

“I’m self-motivated,” he said. “I enjoy playing this game. I don’t get motivated by revenge.

“Maybe, (the Angels) know that. Maybe, they take advantage of that.”

Port, meanwhile, would prefer to point out that the renewal figure more than doubles Joyner’s salary of 1987.

“I cannot recall any player on our team who did not receive a salary raise this season,” Port said. “But don’t print that. That would make me out to be semi-lucid.”

So, where do the Angels and Joyner go from here? Probably to an arbitration hearing next February, when Joyner becomes eligible to present his case before an impartial third party.

“I’ve got a long time to think about next year,” Joyner said. “Hopefully, I’ll make the right decision when the time comes. I have to go out and have a good year now.”

Joyner will begin working toward that end. Today.

Angel Notes

Pitcher Urbano Lugo also had his contract renewed Thursday. All other Angel players, according to General Manager Mike Port, signed their 1988 contracts. . . . The Angels blew a 1-0 lead over Cleveland when their defense broke down in the fifth inning of their exhibition game. Wally Joyner committed two errors on ground balls by Chris Bando and Pat Tabler. Second baseman Mark McLemore mishandled another grounder off the bat of Tommy Hinzo. The three errors led to three unearned runs, making a loser out of pitcher Jack Lazorko, who surrendered two more runs in the sixth inning and another in the seventh before being replaced by Stewart Cliburn. “Lazorko’s best inning was the inning where he gave up the three runs,” Angel Manager Gene Mauch said. “We just couldn’t catch the ball in the fifth.”

More Mauch: “You know, I was talking my mouth off all morning with reporters here, telling them the one thing I’m damn sure of about this team is that we can catch a ball. Look what happens. A lot of players on our team are glad Tucson is not in the American League.” . . . Willie Fraser started for the Angels and completed his three-inning stint with so much ease that Mauch sent him out for a fourth inning. Fraser left the game with a 1-0 lead, having allowed three hits while striking out two. “I had some pop out there,” Fraser said. “I got the ball up a bit and I forced a few pitches, but other than that, I was happy. They got no runs off me. When they get no runs, I’m happy.”

Greg Minton, originally scheduled to have pitched in place of Cliburn Thursday, spent the day in Inglewood’s Centinela Hospital Medical Center, having his sore right elbow examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum. Results of the tests are expected today. . . . Dan Petry is scheduled to pitch in a simulated game today before the Angels’ exhibition with the Milwaukee Brewers. If all goes well, Petry could conceivably pitch in a game before the Angels break camp for Palm Springs next Wednesday.