Brewers Win Battle for Yount : Baseball: Big dollars and big heart help keep MVP in a Milwaukee uniform.

In a decision that allows him to heed his heart and at the same time feed his bank account, Robin Yount agreed to a three-year contract with the Milwaukee Brewers Tuesday and joined the ever-growing list of baseball’s $3-million men.

Yount, who has spent his entire 16-year career with the Brewers, became the biggest prize in this winter’s free-agent market after he won his second American League most valuable player award last month. The Angels, Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals were interested in the 34-year-old outfielder, but they could not compete with Yount’s loyalty to Milwaukee.

“This was not a free-agent pursuit that was going to be won by an avalanche of dollars,” Angel General Manager Mike Port said. “He was just trying to make the right decision for himself and everyone he felt he had to please. He’s a broad-minded and capable enough individual to try to please the fans of Milwaukee, the people in the Brewers’ organization and his own desires.

“I felt all along the decision to be made was whether he wanted to leave Milwaukee. They (Yount and his brother, Larry, his agent) were very forthright all along. I think they passively were telling us ‘Don’t get your hopes up.’ ”

Yount’s devotion will hardly cost him financially. Under his new contract, Yount, who earned $1,150,000 in 1989, reportedly will receive $9.6 million, an average salary of $3.2 million. That’s slightly less than the $3.25-million average that Cy Young Award winner Mark Davis will get from the Royals. Mark Langston signed a five-year, $16-million deal with the Angels; Kirby Puckett of the Minnesota Twins and Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A’s will each average $3 million a season, and Joe Carter will average $3,066,667 with a new three-year, $9.2-million deal with the San Diego Padres.

Yount’s previous contract called for the Brewers to arrange $5.7 million in loans for him, but the new contract has no loan provisions. He did accept binding arbitration before agreeing to the new deal, preserving his eligibility to become a free agent again when this contract expires.

“I’m delighted to sign with the team I’ve played for throughout my entire career and I’m especially grateful for all the Milwaukee and Wisconsin fan support the past two months as well as during my 16 years in Milwaukee,” Yount said in a statement released by the Brewers. “I’m looking forward to being with the Brewers for the next three years in our effort to win a world championship.”

Yount, who grew up in Woodland Hills, hit .318 last season, with 21 home runs and 103 runs batted in, as the Brewers went 81-81. He said at the end of last season that before he would agree to remain with the Brewers, he wanted to see changes that would demonstrate management’s commitment to winning. The club’s most significant off-season move has been the signing of designated hitter Dave Parker from Oakland for $3.025 million over two years. The Brewers’ tugs on his heartstrings--and a letter-writing campaign that resulted in 6,000 pleas from Milwaukee-area schoolchildren urging him to stay--may have been the ties that bound Yount.

“I’ve been particularly close to Robin and Paul Molitor and Jim Gantner,” Brewer owner Bud Selig said. “I guess maybe I grew up with them, too, in a great sense. I have a special feeling toward the veteran players. Robin and I have been very close, and the whole world knows that.”

According to Port, the Angels were second in the Yount chase despite never having spelled out specific financial terms. Dodger Vice President Fred Claire acknowledged that his club had made Yount an offer “that reflected his value” but would not divulge the amount.

Port said: “We never made him an offer because of the plane it was on and my understanding of how California ranked in his priorities. It wasn’t really necessary for us to make an offer. When you’re talking about a player with his credentials, having just won his second most valuable player award, you’re talking at least a certain number of years and a certain amount of money.

“Had he chosen to point himself our way, things would have developed quickly. I think what Robin was saying was, ‘I have a heartfelt decision to make and the first decision is where I want to play.’ In that situation, it was not appropriate for us to say, ‘We’ll give you this amount of money,’ because then he might say, ‘Didn’t you hear what I said?’ and think we were pressuring him. . . .

“It was a difficult decision for him to make, albeit a nice one. It was my impression that had he not chosen Milwaukee, he would have chosen California, but he didn’t go that way. I still have the utmost respect for Robin Yount and I can say that we wish him luck.”

Like Port, Claire was not surprised by Yount’s decision.

“We knew we certainly had a difficult task because he had a lot of attachments to the Milwaukee organization,” Claire said. “We felt we had a good meeting with them (earlier this month). He knew a lot about the Dodger organization, he grew up in Southern California and he knew he was a top priority of our organization. We had made an offer after our initial meeting, but we really did not have the opportunity to come back and meet again.”

Without Yount, both general managers have problems to solve in center field. Port said he never made any plans predicated on Yount’s presence in the Angels’ lineup “because you don’t dare allow yourself to get involved in that channel. . . . We still have some possibilities position-wise and one that would help us with our pitching depth.” Claire said he had discussions that were “ongoing, as always” with other clubs.

Angel Notes

The Angels signed middle reliever Mark Eichhorn to a triple-A contract. The 29-year-old right-hander split last season between Atlanta and the Braves’ triple-A Richmond affiliate. He was 5-5 with a 4.35 earned-run average in 45 games with the Braves and was 1-0 with a 1.32 ERA and 19 saves in 25 games with Richmond. Eichhorn’s best season was with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1986, when he was 14-6 with a 1.72 ERA and 10 saves.