Abbott Is the Bait for Herzog’s Fishing Expedition : Angels: The goal is to lure some hitters to bulk up an anemic offense and lure fans back to the ballpark.

With an organization to evaluate and overhaul during the season, Angel Senior Vice President Whitey Herzog hasn’t had much chance to go fishing, his favorite pastime. But he has taken up a new hobby: dangling Jim Abbott as trade bait, hoping that with Abbott as the lure, he can reel in the potent bat--or bats--the Angels desperately need.

It’s a temptation Herzog should resist, although he probably won’t.

Why is Herzog so actively trying to trade a pitcher who has ranked among the American League’s best the last two seasons, gives his time to every charity that asks and, at 25, has the potential to be the ace of the staff for the next decade?

Primarily because Abbott is the only Angel who could be traded for two or three quality players, players who might fill glaring voids on a team that finished in a tie for fifth in the American League West and was near or at the bottom of the league in most significant offensive categories.

Herzog is also figuring that, even though Abbott is immensely popular, he didn’t fill seats at Anaheim Stadium. The team’s attendance of 2,065,444 was the lowest since the strike-shortened 1981 season.

But the Angels offered few gate attractions.

Their top home-run hitter, Gary Gaetti, had 12--as many as Oakland’s Mark McGwire might hit in a month. Their offense was the weakest in the league, and none of their starting pitchers won more games than they lost. With a 72-90 record, the Angels recorded the fewest victories they have had since 1983, when they were 70-92.

Any wonder why attendance decreased 350,792 from 1991?

The attendance drop will increase the club’s deficit, which was projected last spring at about $8 million by Jackie Autry, the team’s executive vice president and final authority. By Herzog’s thinking, with an offense fortified by players he gets for Abbott, the Angels could be a more attractive draw next season.

After spurning offers for Abbott from the Blue Jays around midseason, Herzog in September approached the Yankees and offered them Abbott for center fielder Bernie Williams, first-base prospect J.T. Snow and pitching prospect Mark Hutton. Herzog has since found justification for the deal: After sporadic contract talks with Abbott over the last month, he rejected Abbott’s idea that the two sides split their financial difference.

The Angels offered Abbott $16 million for four years. Abbott and his agent, Scott Bora, were asking $19 million for four years. But when compromise was offered, Herzog refused to meet in the middle at $17.5 million. Now, Herzog has declared that Abbott can’t be signed, the prelude to trading him.

“We’re not moving,” Herzog said last week, during which he also reportedly discussed trading Abbott to the Philadelphia Phillies. “There’s no compromise. I thank the Cowboy (owner Gene Autry) for letting me go as high as we have.”

Could part of the reason pitching coach Marcel Lachemann departed be that he knows Abbott--his protege--won’t be back next season?

Herzog, a shrewd judge of talent, probably would rather not part with Abbott. But he has few options because Abbott is his most tradable commodity, one of the few Angels not past his prime, locked into a lavish long-term contract or both.

Mark Langston has two years left on his contract at $3.25 million a season. He also has a no-trade clause. Although he is not absolutely opposed to waiving that, he has said he would refuse a trade to New York. At 32, with a 118-115 record, he is less marketable than Abbott.

Chuck Finley is coming off an injury-marred 7-12 season and is only one year into a four-year, $18.5-million contract most teams wouldn’t touch. Reliever Bryan Harvey (four years, $15.5 million) is coming off elbow surgery, which renders him questionable. Herzog would love to get rid of Gaetti’s contract, which has two years left at $3 million a year, but there’s little hope of that after Gaetti’s .226 season and shaky defense at third base.

Herzog’s other poker chips are prospects. Other teams would snap up Tim Salmon or Damion Easley, but neither would bring the caliber of player the Angels need to add major punch to a non-threatening lineup.

Asked how far his team is from contending for a division title, Manager Buck Rodgers measured his words carefully.

“If I was confident we could get two guys for the middle of the lineup, I would say to you we can be competitive next year, competitive being .500,” he said. “We might get lucky and jump up 10 games. We need a couple of guys in the middle of the lineup. In Hubie Brooks and Von Hayes, we thought we got them, but that didn’t work out.

“And other guys are going to have to progress as scheduled. The pitchers are going to have to pitch as scheduled, and we have to avoid injuries to our starting pitchers. After two guys in the middle, our priority has got to be pitching. For me to say we’re a year away or two years away, a lot of things have to happen.”

Herzog and Rodgers predicated their plans for 1992 on getting 150 runs batted in from Brooks and Hayes, veteran players acquired relatively cheaply because they were coming off injuries. They envisioned shortstop Gary DiSarcina and outfielder Chad Curtis as support players and hoped that Julio Valera, acquired in April for Dick Schofield, would be a capable fourth starting pitcher.

DiSarcina, Curtis and Joe Grahe, transformed into a reliever when Harvey’s injured elbow left the bullpen without a closer, exceeded Rodgers’ expectations. Valera, although inconsistent, has pitched well enough to keep a spot in the rotation.

Brooks and Hayes fell flat.

Brooks started strong but was sidelined by a neck injury for 11 weeks and hit .216 with 36 RBIs. Hayes, lamentable defensively and on the basepaths, was released in August after hitting .225 with four home runs and 29 RBIs.

“The bottom line is, Von didn’t do it, Hubie didn’t do it and none of the younger kids chipped in to be the icing on the cake,” Rodgers said. “The kids have been the cake, not the icing, which may not be altogether bad when you talk about development.”

It’s never bad to find a solid shortstop, as DiSarcina promises to be, or a speedy outfielder such as Curtis, whose 43 stolen bases were a pleasant surprise. Or an athlete such as Easley, who made a remarkable transition from shortstop to third base after Gaetti’s bat sputtered and Rene Gonzales suffered a broken hand.

But John Orton, handed the catching job when Lance Parrish was released, has shown he can’t hit. Outfielder Junior Felix, who led the team with 72 RBIs, slumped in the second half. Lee Stevens, who was supposed to make the fans forget Wally Joyner, batted .221 and played himself off the list of players the Angels will protect in the expansion draft Nov. 17.

This is a team of sixth- or seventh-place hitters, not third, fourth or fifth, a team without power from the left side.

Salmon batted cleanup after his August promotion from triple-A Edmonton but was moved to third or fifth. The Angels still have to determine if his .347 batting average, 29 homers and 105 RBIs for Edmonton were a fluke. They couldn’t tell this season because a sprained left wrist sidelined him for much of September and limited him to a .177 batting average.

“I have a tough time saying this has been a bad year,” Rodgers insisted. “You can look at the standings and say, ‘We’re not better off than we were a year ago,’ but anyone around the scene for 15 minutes knows we are. Our options are better. Our scouting system, which has been dumped on, should be walking high. This has been a good organizational year. It’s brought the organization together a lot.

“The next step will be how these young players develop further; how we take advantage of the things we learned--both good and bad--about our players; how we can put together a deal or two to strengthen ourselves.”

Rodgers doesn’t envision an Angel trade until after the draft or perhaps until spring training. He wants to keep Abbott, especially if whatever he would bring in trade would improve the offense only marginally.

“If it’s going to be one bat, one bat isn’t going to do it,” he said. “We’re going to have to have at least two, and one of them is going to have to be a left-handed hitter. We may have to trade for one or (sign) a lower-line free agent. We might have to get lucky with a free agent, which we weren’t lucky with our selections last year.”

Translation: They won’t spend $30 million or more on Pittsburgh’s Barry Bonds, the prime catch in the free-agent market. Or however many millions it will take to sign McGwire. Ruben Sierra doesn’t interest them, and Kirby Puckett and Paul Molitor have less value to them than to Minnesota and Milwaukee, respectively, where they have played their entire careers.

If the Angels are going to spend money, it should be on right-hander Chris Bosio, who won’t be re-signed by the Brewers. A rotation of Abbott, Finley, Langston, Valera and Bosio would be formidable. Rodgers is hoping someone emerges for the fifth starting spot, but he acknowledged that none of the club’s triple-A pitchers has a chance of winning a job. If nothing else pans out, the Angels can re-sign Bert Blyleven (8-12).

To succeed without emptying the Autrys’ bank account--and every indication from Jackie Autry is that that won’t happen--the Angels must:

--Continue building on their pitching, continue their aggressive baserunning and stay with the kids they promoted this season.

--Supplement the kiddie corps with the mid-level free agents, who should be plentiful enough to drive prices down.

--Re-sign Rene Gonzales, which they have put off to avoid having to protect him in the expansion draft, but forget such fringe players as John Morris, Jose Gonzalez and such broken-down, 30-something players as Don Robinson.

If he hits .270 next season, as Rodgers hopes, Salmon may develop into the cleanup hitter they covet by 1994, eliminating the need for trading Abbott.

Remember that Rodgers missed 89 games while recovering from injuries suffered in the team’s bus accident May 21. His team had lost seven of nine before the crash and its offense was going stale, but Rodgers might have re-ignited a spark before a 13-33 stretch dropped the Angels from 4 1/2 games out of first place to 18 out.

Too many times in their history, the Angels have declared that they were going in one direction--with kids, with high-salaried superstars--only to change course the moment they faltered. The course they are on now is the right way to go if they are ever going to win that pennant and World Series championship that they have always wanted to give the Cowboy.

Times staff writer Ross Newhan contributed to this story.