Finley Getting a Toehold on New Season : Angels: Pitcher hopes surgery to repair broken toe will improve his precision and power. He expects to be ready for spring workouts.

Although a bone in Chuck Finley’s left big toe was shattered into so many fragments “you could make a bracelet,” the Angel left-hander was tenacious enough to pitch 227 1/3 innings and win 18 games last season.

But when it came time to have the toe surgically repaired, he wasn’t quite as brave.

“It was scary. I never had surgery before, so I was hugging everybody in the room in case I didn’t see them again,” Finley said. “I pride myself on being tough, but this was something else.”

The surgery, performed Dec. 6, removed three pieces of bone that had inflamed his toe since the last day of spring training. Finley won’t begin throwing for another week, but he has been able to swim, lift weights and work out on a Versaclimber, and he expects to be ready when Angel pitchers report to Mesa, Ariz., for spring workouts Feb. 20.

Despite an enviable 18-9 record last season, Finley knew he wasn’t as precise or overpowering as in the past. He now believes subconscious changes he made in his pitching motion to protect his toe threw off his rhythm and led him to issue a career-high 101 walks.

“There was a lot of discomfort. It was like walking around with a stone or rock in your shoe,” Finley said Friday after exercising at Anaheim Stadium. “I had good days and bad days. I don’t know that I tried to do anything different, but I got some feedback that I was doing something a little different. I was still capable of competing. The one thing it messed with me was my control. I don’t have pinpoint accuracy, but I could tell I was off.

“It almost got to the point where I couldn’t do the other things associated with pitching, like running. You try to go out there 100%, but pitchers always have aches and pains, so you try to walk it out and try to do what you can. I knew it wasn’t going to hurt my career.”

The operation didn’t hurt at all. Finley was under a local anesthesia, and he watched part of the procedure. “They lay you down and you’re helpless. It’s like Dr. Frankenstein, they could put bolts in your head,” he said. “I remember waking up and seeing them wiggle my toe and I asked them, ‘How are things going down there? Let me see what you all took out. Are there any spare parts?’ ”

His recovery is progressing well, with only a bit of stiffness to remind him of the surgery. “Three weeks ago I couldn’t move my toe, but now I can do some light jogging,” he said. “I feel pretty good about it.”

He also feels good about the upcoming season, despite the departure of most of the Angels’ offense with the exits of Dave Winfield and Wally Joyner. He anticipates no more pressure burdening the pitchers than last season, when he and Jim Abbott each won 18 games and Mark Langston won 19 behind the league’s 13th-ranked offense.

“We didn’t score that many runs last year and we did all right,” said Finley, who in mid-December signed a four-year, $18.5-million contract that was the most lucrative in club history. “I think the team this year is going to be a little different. There’s going to be more running and stealing, which is exciting for pitchers to watch. Last year we had a powerful offense but it sputtered and sputtered and never got going. We might lack punch as far as hitting the ball out of the ballpark, but there’s other ways to score runs.”

Club President Richard Brown said the Angels are discussing a one-year contract with Abbott instead of a long-term deal because a shorter deal would be simpler to arrange before arbitration hearings start next Saturday.

Abbott was a career-best 18-11 with a 2.89 earned-run average last season, when he earned $357,500. He filed for arbitration at $2.1 million and the Angels at $1.6 million, which Brown called “a signing number.”

Brown added: “We’re looking to obviate the need for arbitration and sign a one-year deal, but we’re still interested in signing Jim to a multi-year deal. The need is not critical. . . . We have not changed course. The one-year deal may be the first year of a four-year deal.”