BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJOR LEAGUES : Worrell Won’t Go to Minor Leagues

Relief pitcher Todd Worrell, who hasn’t pitched in the majors in two years, refused a request by the St. Louis Cardinals that he pitch for their minor league instructional team.

Worrell has been attempting a comeback after surgery on his elbow. He last pitched in September of 1989.

After throwing 28 pitches in a simulated game Friday, Worrell said he was hoping the Cardinals would activate him for the remaining 17 games this season.

Manager Joe Torre said that the Cardinals will not put Worrell on their major league roster.

“He said he wouldn’t go to the instructional league, that he wanted to pitch here,” Torre said.

Torre said he did not think letting Worrell pitch one or two innings before the end of the season would offer any conclusive results about whether he has regained his form.

“You can’t tell anything by one or two innings. We also would have to bump somebody from the roster to make a spot for Todd, and I don’t want to do that,” Torre said.

Worrell will be a free agent after this season.

‘They just don’t want anybody to see me pitch,” Worrell said. “They’re trying to tell me I’m selfish because they’d have to drop somebody from the roster to make room for me. But they’re just trying to keep me people from seeing me throw.”

Cardinal General Manager Dal Maxvill said he will talk with Worrell’s agent in an effort topersuade the pitcher to report to instructional league.

Pitching for the first time in three months, Cuban defector Rene Arocha worked two innings for the Kansas City Royals’ instructional farm club at Haines City, Fla., in his first minor league outing.

“I wasn’t nervous, but I wasn’t 100%,” Arocha said through an interpreter. “I wasn’t spotting my pitches well so I couldn’t set up the batters the way I wanted.”

Arocha, 25, who defected in Miami while traveling with the Cuban national team July 10, gave up one run on two hits while striking out three, walking one and throwing one wild pitch against a Houston Astro farm club.