Devereaux Gets One-Year Contract

The Baltimore Orioles’ most potentially divisive contract dispute of the off-season ended amicably Friday when center fielder Mike Devereaux agreed to a one-year contract that will pay him $3.025 million plus incentives.

Devereaux appeared to be headed for an arbitration showdown when he filed for $3.6 million last week, but he compromised at a figure that was $275,000 more than the club’s arbitration offer. The settlement assured that the friendly relationship between the team and its leading run-producer of 1992 would not be damaged by the negative fallout from an arbitration hearing.

“That was important to me,” Devereaux said. “When you talk about arbitration, you go into a room and the club talks about all the negative things about you. It’s a situation where if you can avoid the process, that’s the best thing to do.”

The club would have had to look pretty hard to find anything negative to say about Devereaux this year. He came back from a solid 1991 season with a breakthrough performance in 1992. He hit a career-high 24 home runs, and his team-leading 107 RBI were one shy of equaling his total for the previous two seasons.

“I can’t say that I went into the season thinking that I would end up with 100 RBI,” he said. “I thought I could get into the 80s. Next season, I’m not going to try to do too much. I have to go in with the idea that 85-90 RBI is still a great season.”

There was room to wonder if he went into arbitration asking for too much. His $3.6 million figure was more than the salaries sought by Minnesota Twins outfielder Shane Mack, who was coming off two strong seasons, and Montreal Expos outfielder Larry Walker, who hit .301 with 23 homers and 93 RBI.

Mack signed on Thursday for $3.05 million, which may have had an impact on the final stages of the Devereaux negotiations.

“I think it was a situation where we both knew where the midpoint was,” Devereaux said. “We had an idea of what would be fair. Shane Mack signing yesterday definitely helped justify this.”

The Houston Astros and right-hander Xavier Hernandez avoided arbitration on Friday by agreeing on a $900,000, more than triple his 1992 salary of $230,000.

Hernandez, 27, also will receive a $9,000-a-game bonus for every game from 61 to 70. The third-year veteran had sought $1.15 million in arbitration, and the team had offered $750,000.

The 6-foot-2 native of Port Arthur, Texas, was signed by the Astros in first round in 1989.

His agreement leaves five Astros in arbitration: Craig Biggio, Ken Caminiti, Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch and Mark Portugal.