Gruber Deal Embarrasses the Angels : Baseball: Brown says he will investigate who knew player was hurt and why the team was not told about it.

Richard Brown, president of the Angels, said Wednesday that he and the club’s owners, Gene and Jackie Autry, are determined to investigate the Kelly Gruber situation “because we come across as country bumpkins.”

“I’m embarrassed and upset,” Brown said while attending an owners’ meeting here.

“I’m trying to harness those emotions and determine in a methodical way who knew, besides Gruber, that he was seriously hurt and why weren’t we told about it.”

Obtained in a December trade with the Toronto Blue Jays for Luis Sojo, third baseman Gruber had arthroscopic surgery Tuesday to repair a partial tear in the rotator cuff of his left shoulder and a small muscle tear in that shoulder. He is expected to be sidelined at least eight weeks.

Wednesday, Tommy Craig, the Toronto Blue Jays’ trainer, acknowledged that Gruber complained of a sore left shoulder and was examined after the third game of the World Series.

That was the first time anyone in the Blue Jays’ organization verified that Gruber had injured his shoulder, but Craig insisted the club was unaware of the severity.

“I remember after the game, it was sore,” Craig said. “We had the doctors check him out, but they didn’t find anything.

“He played the next three games, and never complained about it again. Then, he left for the off-season, and he never mentioned it.”

Earlier, Brown said he met with American League President Bobby Brown in Phoenix to alert him to the possibility that the Angels might ask the league to rescind the trade or require Toronto to provide a replacement for Gruber.

Brown said he also discussed the situation with Toronto Chairman Peter Widdington and President Paul Beeston.

“We’ve dealt with the Blue Jays before and they’ve always been above board,” Brown said. “We’ve always had good relations, but this obviously slipped through the cracks some way.

“The Blue Jays are convinced that neither Gruber nor anyone in their organization knew the injury was as serious as it was, but that doesn’t rectify the situation. I mean, it’s not the money (the Angels are paying $2.3 million of Gruber’s $4-million salary), it’s the player.

“We felt a healthy Gruber would be a tremendous asset, but now we’re not sure when he’ll be healthy and ready to play. Too bad we don’t have a lemon law in baseball.”

The reference was to a new- or used-car lemon.

Brown implied that he holds Gruber partially responsible for the situation.

“It’s not a common practice to order a physical for every player who may be traded, but it is common for the player to inform the clubs involved in the trade that he has an injury,” Brown said.

“We knew Gruber had missed games last year with different injuries, but we didn’t know about this injury until a few weeks ago.”

Asked if Whitey Herzog or Dan O’Brien, the Angel vice presidents responsible for negotiating trades, could be blamed, Brown said: “I don’t want to get into that. I’m concerned about the deal as a whole, but I’m not pointing fingers. The ultimate responsibility is mine.”

The Angels made a move of far less magnitude Wednesday, signing veteran pitcher Gene Nelson, 32, to a minor league contract. Nelson was released by the Oakland Athletics on Aug. 17 last year after going 3-1 with a 6.45 earned-run average in 28 games.

Times staff writer Bob Nightengale contributed to this story.

* SALARY CAP: Baseball owners say a lid is necessary if there is to be increased revenue sharing among teams. C8