Strawberry Position Debated : Baseball: Mets say he should be in right field, but Dodgers will put him in center if Daniels with team.

With four months remaining before the start of the 1991 season, the Dodgers have ample time to alter the plan to play Darryl Strawberry in center field.

Left fielder Kal Daniels still could be traded, putting Strawberry in right, Hubie Brooks in left and Stan Javier or a player still to be acquired in center.

It’s a step that New York Met Manager Bud Harrelson and former Met vice president Joe McIlvaine, now the San Diego Padres’ general manager, seemed to be advising the Dodgers to take as they expressed doubt about the ability of ex-Met Strawberry to play center.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Harrelson said at the winter baseball meetings. “I still don’t believe he’s going to be their center fielder.

“That’s a position where you better get a good jump all the time. If you have a weakness, it’ll show up real fast there.

“I mean, wanting it is one thing, doing it another. Darryl doesn’t get a good jump. He’s more suited to right field.”

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda took in the statements Tuesday, then responded.

“Does Bud Harrelson know everything there is to know about baseball? Is he willing to stake his reputation on all that?” Lasorda said.

“It’s like when we were converting Bill Russell from center field to shortstop. Five or six scouts told me he would never play shortstop in the big leagues. Hell, all he did is play it for 17 years.

“I mean, I agree. Darryl is a better right fielder, but that’s only because it’s what he’s been playing. I can’t say he’s going to be a good center fielder, but we’re going to find out.”

Lasorda outlined a rigid spring training plan for Strawberry and reminded critics that center field is the easiest outfield position because the ball isn’t hooking and slicing.

“If Bud Harrelson is an authority on center field, he should have mentioned that,” Lasorda said.

McIlvaine did, pointing out that Mark Carreon of the Mets made the switch from left to center and was suddenly an improved player.

“You see the ball much better there,” McIlvaine said, “but where Darryl is weak is in his positioning. He doesn’t study hitters and position himself accordingly. He’s going to need help there.

“Otherwise, he has the range, the speed, and he certainly can reach. He played center field for us in the minors after he signed in 1980 and ‘81, but he hasn’t beeen there in a long time. He needs to take a hundred fly balls a day.”

Does he have that kind of work ethic?

“Depends what day it is,” McIlvaine said. “Some yes, some no.”

Charles Bronfman, bowing out as owner of the Montreal Expos, told separate meetings of American League and National League owners that a revenue-sharing system that would control salaries is mandatory or expenses will soon “choke many of us.”

The latest warning didn’t stop the latest spending spree.

The New York Yankees gave second baseman Steve Sax a four-year extension for a total of $12.4 million; the Boston Red Sox signed pitcher Matt Young, who has a 51-78 career record, for three years at a total of $6.35 million; the Milwaukee Brewers signed free-agent pitcher Edwin Nunez, 19-25 in his career, to a two-year, $1.5-million contract, and the Toronto Blue Jays re-signed free-agent infielder Rance Mulliniks for two years at a total of $3 million.

The San Francisco Giants, meanwhile, traded reserve infielder Ernest Riles to the Oakland A’s for outfield prospect Darren Lewis.

Attorney Dick Moss, who represents Brett Butler, said Giant President Al Rosen “panicked” when he refused to continue contract talks with Butler and instead signed Willie McGee.

Rosen, Moss said, overreacted to a four-year, $15-million proposal made during last Friday’s first and only negotiating session. “I’ve never known Al to react like that, but he obviously didn’t want to negotiate, he just wanted to sign McGee,” said Moss, who added that Butler, soon to become a new-look free agent, will have alternatives.

It appears that Commissioner Fay Vincent will eventually have to resolve a flowering feud between his two leagues involving the American’s request to share in the National’s $190 million of 1993 expansion income in exchange for the AL supplying some of the players.

AL President Bobby Brown said his league gave 1/26th of their 1977 expansion fees to the NL and made a gentlemen’s agreement with the NL that they would share when the NL expanded.

Douglas Danforth, the Pittsburgh Pirate owner who chairs the NL expansion committee said his league is adamantly against sharing.

He also said the NL has no objection to putting both of the 1993 franchises in Florida.

There is growing speculation that the NL may settle on Miami and St. Petersburg.

Baseball Notes

Although free-agent infielder Bill Doran still commands interest from the Dodgers, Executive Vice President Fred Claire continued to downgrade the chance that he would make a major free-agent investment in addition to Doran. “We should have enough ingenuity to go about it another way,” said Claire, pointing to a trade for a left-handed relief pitcher.

General Manager Mike Port said the Angels are unlikely to make another deal before returning to California today. However, it appears that they have found the left-handed reliever they have sought. Angel President Richard Brown and Senior Vice President Dan O’Brien said the club will make at least one move within a week involving the signing of a left-hander; neither would be specific, except to say they’re not signing a Type A free agent. It’s believed the pitcher is either Don Carman, a Type B free agent who could be signed without compensation to the Phillies if he’s not offered arbitration by Friday, or Bill Krueger, who can be signed without compensating Milwaukee. . . . Brown indicated that the Angels will consider pursuing third baseman Gary Gaetti should Gaetti be granted new-look free agency.

As expected, the Angels announced the acquisition of outfielder Dave Gallagher from the Baltimore Orioles for minor league pitchers David Martinez and Mike Hook. “He’s very aggressive, and he’s got defensive abilities,” Manager Doug Rader said of Gallagher, who had limited action last season because of a hamstring injury. “There’s an outside chance of possibly losing Max (Venable), and defensively we need to protect ourselves in the outfield.”

Times staff writer Helene Elliott contributed to this story.