A Change of Scenery Has Benefited White : Baseball: Former Angel who didn’t feel at home leading off is making the Blue Jays happy they traded for him.

It was his defensive abilities--that blazing outfield speed, the strong arm and those two Gold Glove awards--that attracted the Toronto Blue Jays to Devon White last winter.

In fact, when the Blue Jays acquired White in a trade from the Angels, Toronto General Manager Pat Gillick was not looking for much in the way of offense.

“We just want Devo to play center field,” Gillick said at the time. “Anything he hits is gravy.”

White, though, has added some meat and potatoes to his plate appearances, batting .289 with 19 runs batted in after Toronto’s 3-2 victory over the Angels in front of 26,408 Friday night at Anaheim Stadium. He also ranks second in the American League with 12 doubles.

“I was really happy about (Gillick’s remark),” said White, who singled and scored Friday night. “It really took a lot of pressure off me. It’s hard to always live up to expectations and numbers you might have put up in the past. Sometimes you just have to look at the person.”

With White, they always looked at the numbers. When you have the kind of rookie season he had with the Angels in 1987--.263 average, 24 home runs and 87 RBIs--it’s hard to avoid.

The Angels must have thought White was the second coming of Willie Mays. White was a graceful outfielder with speed and, apparently, power.

Problem is, White started swinging like he thought he was Willie Mays. He tried to hit too many homers, and he struck out more than 100 times in three of his four seasons with the Angels.

The Angels wanted him to lead off. White wanted to tee off. His batting average and his stock slid downward.

White showed flashes of brilliance, but the Angels got tired of waiting for him to reach his potential.

So began last winter’s Devo-lition Derby, a total destruction of the Devon White project. The Angels traded White with Willie Fraser to Toronto for Luis Sojo and Junior Felix.

It might surprise Angel fans that White’s 1991 success has come from the leadoff position, the same spot from which he confounded Angel management over four seasons (1987-90).

But this is the new Devo--would that be Deveau in Canada?--the non-thinking man’s hitter, the batter who is no longer besieged with hitting advice, like he was in Anaheim.

“When I asked him to try batting leadoff, he said he had hit three, four or five throughout his career and wasn’t used to it,” Toronto Manager Cito Gaston said. “I told him to act like he was hitting third or fourth. Get comfortable and just swing the bat.”

White has looked like a No. 3 or 4 hitter at times. He leads the team with 28 strikeouts--one for every 5.7 plate appearances is high for a leadoff batter.

But White doesn’t appear to be over-swinging and he seems to be adjusting to his role. He hasn’t hit a home run this season and he has a .407 on-base percentage (16 hits, 54 at-bats, four walks, two hit-by-pitch) when leading off an inning.

“Sometimes he tries to do too much with certain pitches and that gets him into trouble,” Toronto batting Coach Gene Tenace said. “But he’s basically relaxed now, and I think that’s the main reason his ability is starting to surface. A lot of times a change of scenery can do a world of good.”

So can a change in batting philosophy. The Angels always wanted White to be something he wasn’t: a contact hitter, a selective hitter, a singles-and-doubles hitter. All Toronto wanted White to do was act naturally.

“When you see that kind of natural talent, you have a tendency to throw too much at them,” Tenace said. “Sometimes it’s best to leave guys alone. I just let Devo go. I showed him some things in spring training, in the batting cage, but he has his idea of what he wants to do.”

What White wants to do is be aggressive and let whatever happens, be it a hit, homer or strikeout, happen.

“Last year I was concentrating so hard on not swinging at bad pitches that . . . well, things just kept getting worse,” White told The Toronto Star in March. “I mean, I can get 30, maybe 35 walks a year, but I’ve got to be swinging. Here, they’re pretty much telling me just be Devon White up there. I can do that.”