Angels Sign McCaskill, Close Arbitration Book

Although inactivity remains the rule for locked-out players, the Angels’ front office has not been idle.

The club on Friday reached agreement with Kirk McCaskill on a one-year contract that will pay the 28-year-old right-hander slightly less than $970,000 plus incentives based on the number of innings he pitches, avoiding an arbitration hearing that had been scheduled for Monday.

McCaskill was 15-10 last season with a 2.93 earned-run average and four shutouts, tying him for second in the American League. McCaskill, who earned $400,000 last season, had sought $1.185 million and the Angels had offered $750,000. McCaskill’s name has often been mentioned in trade rumors since the signing of Mark Langston gave the Angels six starters, but any deal would probably would be delayed because of the lockout.

McCaskill’s case was the last to be settled of the 12 Angels who were eligible to file for arbitration. Nine players agreed to contracts, Wally Joyner and Devon White had arbitration hearings and the Angels declined to go to arbitration with Greg Minton, who declared himself a free agent.

Dan O’Brien, the Angels’ senior vice president for baseball operations, said from his Anaheim office that he hopes to sign infielders Mark McLemore, Bobby Rose and Kent Anderson and outfielder Lee Stevens.

“We’re going to continue to negotiate while we’re waiting,” O’Brien said. “I’m delighted we’ve put to rest this particular issue, the players who were eligible for arbitration. Now it’s time to get on with the rest of it.”

On the second day of the baseball lockout, tarpaulins were placed on the pitching mounds of the fields at Gene Autry Park, where the Angels train. Otherwise, the silence was as oppressive as it was Thursday, when pitchers, catchers and injured players were kept out.

Minor league players--who are not covered by the Major League Players Assn.’s rules--and non-roster players were instructed by the Angels not to report to Mesa, and Brian Bossard, the field manager in charge of the facility, said Friday that no players had come by. He and his crew are keeping the fields ready.

Jay Hall, a desk clerk at the Hilton Pavilion in Mesa, said the Angels had canceled their reserved block of about 70 rooms Thursday. Although he was disappointed the team didn’t arrive as originally scheduled, he was pleased that the rooms didn’t stay unoccupied for long.

“We thought it would be a problem, but they filled right up,” he said. “All the hotels in the area are full. People are still coming.”

That could cause a few headaches should the impasse be resolved soon and the Angels again need a large number of rooms. “I think we’d work something out in that case,” Hall said.

Although camps are closed, several teams that train in the Mesa-Scottsdale-Tempe area conducted workouts for their minor league players at various sites.

The San Francisco Giants put 32 minor leaguers through their paces at Indian School Park in Scottsdale, but none is on the team’s 40-man roster. The Oakland Athletics were arranging workouts at Scottsdale Community College. The Chicago Cubs, who spend the spring in Mesa, had no players working out.