Parrish Signs for 3 Years With Angels : Baseball: Free agent catcher, 33, decides to remain in Anaheim with a contract worth $6.75 million.

After taking a new look at his options, Lance Parrish decided the view is best right where he is.

Parrish, who was granted “new look” free agency last month as an offshoot of baseball’s second collusion case, signed a three-year deal with the Angels Wednesday worth $6.75 million.

The 33-year-old catcher, who was the foundation of the pitching staff’s outstanding performance last season, earned a base salary of $1 million for 1989 and added $210,000 in bonuses. He hit .238 in 124 games with 17 home runs and 50 RBIs, and his .993 fielding percentage was tops among catchers who played more than 95 games.

Under his new contract, Parrish will receive a $500,000 signing bonus, a salary of $1.75 million in 1990, $2.25 million in 1991 and $2.25 million in 1992. He may have undermined his leverage by publicly saying he wanted to stay with the Angels, but he knew he wouldn’t have been as happy anywhere else.

“Maybe I hurt my own case, but I wasn’t too concerned about that,” said Parrish, who waived his right to free agency when the Angels acquired him from Philadelphia in October, 1988, but was awarded another chance by arbitrator George Nicolau.

“I felt the Angels treated me very fairly. I never was concerned about cutting myself short. They realized I could talk to other clubs. Some clubs had shown interest in me early, but the Angels were very earnest in their decision to talk with me and get it done.”

Had his batting average not faded late last season--he hit less than .190 after Aug. 5 with only two home runs--Parrish might have done even better financially; his contract is not among baseball’s top 10 in average annual value. But Parrish, who attributed the decline to injuries he suffered in a collision with Milwaukee’s Glenn Braggs, has no regrets.

“I feel very fortunate the way things turned out,” said Parrish, who graduated from Walnut High School and lives in Yorba Linda. “Guys that are coming off real, real good years are going to get big money, guys like Mark Langston and Kirby Puckett, and if I would have had the kind of year I feel I’m capable of, maybe I would have gotten more. But I have no complaints.”

Nor do the Angels.

“He’s a leader, and once you mention the word leader, that says it all,” said Dan O’Brien, the club’s senior vice president of baseball operations and the chief negotiator in the final stages of the deal. “The tempo and the concept of the game revolves around the catcher, and Parrish is a real leader for us there.”

O’Brien said the Angels never feared losing Parrish, but were “concerned” about keeping him happy. “We wanted him to stay and he wanted to stay, and that makes it a little easier,” O’Brien said.

The status of another prominent free agent, American League most valuable player Robin Yount, remains unchanged. General Manager Mike Port said he has not spoken with the Brewers’ center fielder for nearly two weeks.

“It was left on the basis that Robin has some decisions to make and we’re not inclined to be intrusive,” Port said. “It’s not the type of situation where you’re going to change his emotions.”

Port repeated that the Angels have not made Yount an offer and scoffed at a report in last week’s New York Post that quoted an unidentified scout as saying the Angels had proposed a $27-million package that included a $5-million signing bonus and a golf course.

A county circuit judge in Milwaukee is hoping Yount will give more weight to sentiment than money: a plea to the city’s children by judge Charles Schudson has resulted in 6,000 letters from youngsters urging Yount to remain with the Brewers.

Team president Bud Selig said Monday that he did not expect a decision from Yount this week.