Yankees Get Abbott for Minor Leaguers : ANALYSIS : When the Bottom Line Becomes Goal, Fans Suffer

The Angels traded their most popular player Sunday night. They traded Jim Abbott to the New York Yankees for three prospects who will be earning the minimum salary in next season.

The knee-jerk reaction is to suggest that these are clearly the bottom line Angels now.

The knee-jerk reaction is to suggest that you have to get at least one impact player in return for a pitcher with a proven record and heroic story.

The knee-jerk reaction is to say yes, those laughs are coming from Nolan Ryan and Don Baylor and Wally Joyner and other popular Angels allowed to leave for financial reasons with no apparent concern for the cost in public relations.

Is the knee-jerk reaction valid? There’s no other way to look at it.

Maybe J.T. Snow, the International League batting champion, will fill the hole at first base.

Maybe Russ Springer, an eight-game winner at triple A, can become an effective starter in a rotation still one pitcher short.

Maybe Jerry Nielsen, 3-5 at double A, can become a left-handed set-up or middle man in a bullpen now absent the closer named Bryan Harvey and the $10.75 million he was guaranteed in the next three years.

Maybe all of that will happen, but do you trade Jim Abbott and his 211 innings and 2.77 earned-run average and impact at the gate for maybes?

“This was my deal. I’ll take full responsibility,” said Whitey Herzog, the Angels’ executive vice president.

It was Herzog’s deal to the extent he scouted thoroughly in the minor leagues this year and selected the package that he felt was the best he could get for Abbott considering that payroll was a significant concern.

It was not Herzog’s deal, however, in that he needed to get the approval of owners Gene and Jackie Autry and was operating within financial limits that have frustrated his attempt to apply the quick fix he produced in St. Louis.

Abbott made $1.85 million last season, was eligible for arbitration and will become a free agent after the 1994 season. He had been offered a four-year, $16-million contract by the Angels, the largest ever for a fourth-year pitcher. He wanted $19 million, but was willing to compromise at $17.5 million.

The Angels, who have jettisoned nearly $20 million in salaries and future guarantees since the start of last season, refused to compromise and didn’t think they had to.

Maybe not, but considering the money they were saving on other contracts, considering Abbott’s ability and popularity, wouldn’t $17.5 million have made sense?

Couldn’t some of that $20 million in savings gone to Abbott, one of their own, and some of it to a free-agent hitter such as Mark McGwire, giving Angel fans the best of both worlds?

Protecting the Autrys, Herzog said they had already gone the financial distance with Abbott. He said he was aware of the pitcher’s popularity, but “we weren’t going to win the way we were. The only way to make a franchise successful is by winning. Nothing else matters.”

That’s true in the long run, but it was also possible to rebuild the Angels by retaining Abbott in a rotation with Chuck Finley, Mark Langston and Julio Valera and judiciously using free agency to acquire at least one big hitter to protect Tim Salmon.

The economical Angels might still go the free-agency route. They are said to have made a multiyear offer to Paul Molitor. Not bad, but now they have uncertainty in their rotation and are asking three unproven prospects to play key roles.

“I think we’ve helped ourselves in three areas,” Herzog said. “I saw a lot of the minor leagues, and no other club has as many prospects as the Yankees. All three of these kids were among the 15 players they protected in the expansion draft. I think that says a hell of a lot.”

For many years the Angels were criticized for ignoring farm development and spending recklessly on free agents in an attempt to get the cowboy to the World Series before he died.

Now, Herzog said, with this deal and others to come (“We’re just starting”) and with players such as Gary DiSarcina, Damion Easley, Chad Curtis, Kevin Flora and the touted Salmon, the Angels already have assembled a good young nucleus.

That part of it is to be applauded, but Abbott was a factor in that young nucleus and was traded for three players who at this point have only one certainty in common: They are young.

It’s enough to put Angel fans on their knees.

New Angels

Career statistics for three players Angels obtained in Sunday’s trade, which sent Jim Abbott to the New York Yankees for J.T. Snow, Russ Springer and Jerry Nielsen:

J.T SNOW

Year, Team G R HR RBI AVG. 1989, Oneonta 73 41 8 51 .292 1990, Pr. William 138 57 8 72 .255 1991, Albany-Col. 132 81 13 75 .279 1992, Columbus 135 81 15 78 .313 1992, Yankees 7 1 0 2 .143

* RUSS SPRINGER

Year, Team IP W-L BB SO ERA 1990, Tampa 15 0-2 4 17 1.20 1990, Greensboro 56 1/3 2-3 31 51 3.67 1991, Ft. Lauderdale 152 1/3 5-9 82 138 3.49 1991, Albany-Col. 15 1-0 6 16 1.80 1992, Columbus 123 2/3 8-5 54 95 2.60 1992, Yankees 15 0-0 10 12 5.19

* JERRY NIELSEN

Year, Team IP W-L BB SO ERA 1988, Oneonta 38 0-2 16 35 0.71 1989, Pr. William 49 1/3 3-2 25 45 2.19 1990, Pr. William 151 2/3 7-12 79 119 3.92 1991, Ft. Lauderdale 54 2/3 3-3 31 65 2.78 1992, Albany-Col. 53 3-5 15 55 1.18 1992, Columbus 5 0-0 2 5 1.80 1992, Yankees 19 2/3 1-0 18 12 4.55

* Abbott’s Angel Statistics

Year W-L ERA G CG SH IP H R ER W K 1989 12-12 3.92 29 4 2 181.1 190 95 79 74 115 1990 10-14 4.51 33 4 1 211.2 246 116 106 72 105 1991 18-11 2.89 34 5 1 243 222 85 78 73 158 1992 7-15 2.77 29 7 0 211 208 73 65 68 130 Total 47-52 3.49 125 20 4 847 866 369 328 287 508