Angels Probably Face Choice Between Bonilla and Joyner

With an estimated deficit of $3.25 million for 1991 and unpredictable but substantial salary arbitration awards this winter, the Angels probably will have to choose between signing prize free agent Bobby Bonilla or re-signing first baseman Wally Joyner, instead of having both players in their lineup next season.

Jackie Autry, an executive vice president of the club and wife of owner Gene Autry, said Monday that the difficult choice could become reality if Bonilla’s salary request is $25 million to $30 million for five years, as has been rumored. Joyner is expected to command about $16 million for four years.

“Right now we’re trying to accomplish signing Mr. Joyner, and if we can’t, that leaves us some money to put in other directions,” Jackie Autry said. “We probably won’t be able to do both. But that depends on what Bonilla is looking for.”

When asked if the Angels had made Bonilla an offer, his agent, Dennis Gilbert said Monday: “I won’t comment on negotiations.”

However, the cost is certain to be steep, as evidenced by Gilbert’s comment last Friday that Bonilla will consider his options carefully because “it’s pretty tough to wrap up a 25-to-30-million-dollar deal quickly.”

Asked if she considered a contract of that magnitude unreasonable, Autry said: “Thirty million, yes, because I don’t think the California Angels have the financial wherewithal to put together a $30-million package. I wish we had the financial wherewithal to do that.”

Autry said that Forbes’ listing of her husband’s fortune at $300 million is inaccurate, and especially so in the current economic downturn.

“Are we sitting on cash? No,” said Autry, who said the Angels’ projected 1991 deficit will be the second-largest in club history.

The deficit, Autry said, “is why you see us off-loading the type of contract that Dave Winfield, Bert Blyleven and Dave Parker had. But arbitration is a factor you can’t deal with. You save $10 million to $12 million on contracts and add $9 million to $10 million in arbitration.

“I told Whitey (Herzog) that and he said, ‘I’d better go back to the drawing board.’ This is a business that has to be operated on a financially sound basis.”