Dodgers Sign Snyder, Re-Sign McDowell

The Dodgers and Angels arrived at the baseball winter meetings Saturday with major holes to fill and no desire to spend significant amounts of money to fill them.

The Dodgers indicated their frugality by re-signing free agent reliever Roger McDowell to a two-year, $3-million contract, filling a need in the bullpen while cutting his salary by nearly $1 million. But they relented somewhat in signing free agent Cory Snyder to a two-year contract worth $3 million, giving the outfielder/infielder a raise of more than $400,000 per year and an option for a third year. The Dodgers say they plan to use Snyder either at third base or as a backup in the outfield, but Snyder has his mind set on third.

“I’m looking at it like they want me to play third base and that’s how I’m going into spring training, then if they want me to do something else, that’s fine,” Snyder, 30, said from his home in Laguna Beach.

The Angels made no moves, but will continue to weigh trade offers for left-hander Jim Abbott. Whitey Herzog, the team’s senior vice president for player personnel, will meet with New York Yankee General Manager Gene Michael during the meetings to re-work several Yankee proposals Herzog has rejected.

“Offensively, we’ve got to help ourselves, or we are going to run into the same situation we had this season,” said Herzog, whose team finished last in the American League in most offensive categories.

“If we are not going to get into the free agent field, we’ve got to go the trade route--and we don’t have a lot we can trade, except our pitchers.”

Snyder has played the outfield during most of his seven-year major league career but was originally signed by the Cleveland Indians as a third baseman, which he played at Canyon Country Canyon High and at Brigham Young.

“Cleveland signed me as an infielder and I played shortstop and third base through triple-A, then all of a sudden they bring me up to the big leagues as an outfielder--I guess because they wanted to utilize my arm there,” Snyder said. “But last year at San Francisco, I played a lot of third base. Every time Matt Williams went down with his bad back, I was there.”

Snyder batted .269 for the Giants with 14 home runs and 57 runs batted in over 124 games. He played for Cleveland for six seasons before being traded in 1991 to the Chicago White Sox, then to the Toronto Blue Jays, who released him before the end of the season. He went to spring training with the Giants on a minor league contract, with a provision that he had to make the team in order to stay.

“He had some problems after Cleveland, but he bounced back with San Francisco,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “He swung the bat well, and he can hit the ball out of the park.”

McDowell, 31, led the team in saves (14) and blown saves (eight). He was used primarily in the set-up role for Jay Howell, then took over as the closer when Howell continued to fight injuries.

The Dodgers plan to use McDowell in the set-up role and are continuing to pursue free-agent right-hander Todd Worrell as a closer, a role Dodger Jim Gott is also being considered for.

The only immediate decisions the Dodgers and Angels face is whether to offer arbitration to their remaining free agents. Dodger free agents are catcher Mike Scioscia, pitchers Bob Ojeda, John Candelaria and Howell, and infielder Dave Anderson; Angel free agents are pitcher Bert Blyleven, catcher Mike Fitzgerald, outfielder Hubie Brooks, and infielders Ken Oberkfell and Rene Gonzales.

Fred Claire, the Dodgers’ executive vice president, said the left-handed Candelaria is not in the team’s plans. Nor does it appear that the Dodgers will keep Scioscia, who wants to be a starter, a role the club seems eager to give to Mike Piazza or Carlos Hernandez.

Scioscia said he has talked with the Dodgers, without progress.

“They know I want to play every day, about 120-130 games, and I know I’m capable of doing that,” said Scioscia, who is coming off his worst season--a .221 batting average in 117 games. “Evidently they have another view of how much I can play, but really haven’t given me any indication of what that is. I will be disappointed if I don’t come back only because I would like the chance to rebound after such a poor season. I would hate to leave the organization this way.”