With Gaetti’s Release, Angels Cut Dead Weight

The last time we saw Gary Gaetti, he was popping up to shortstop with the tying run in scoring position.

The last time we heard from Gary Gaetti, he was lamenting his lot with the 1993 Angels, braying to a group of writers, “What am I now, J.T.’s caddie?”

So often, the ones who should be the first to know are the last to find out.

For the final two months of his Angel career, yes, Gaetti was J.T. Snow’s caddie. And Rene Gonzales’ caddie. And Chili Davis’ caddie. You knew it, I knew it, the entire American League knew it.

And for this, the Angels were paying Gaetti $3 million a year through 1994, making him the kind of caddie only Michael Jordan could afford.

Certainly the Angels couldn’t. Not anymore, not with the American League West race coming to them and forcing the Angels’ penurious management team to face up to a scenario it frankly hadn’t planned for until the middle of the decade.

Contention.

Here it is, early June, 50 games in the book, and the Angels remain in a virtual tie for first. They weren’t prepared for this. If they had, they’d have remembered to pack Bryan Harvey.

But the Twins can’t throw a strike without the ball punching a hole in the Metrodome roof. The White Sox are barely outplaying the Cubs. Kansas City ran away and hid for six weeks--in the Texas League.

By simply playing win-six, lose-five baseball, the Angels, by process of elimination, were awarded custody of first place. They didn’t ask to be here; the high altitude was thrust upon them. But, since they’re this far, no sense squandering the position, even if a division championship could mean a 37% pay increase across the board next year.

So, Thursday, the Angels began bailing their dead weight, the first indication so far that they are taking this all-comers meet in the AL West seriously.

They released Gaetti and his .188 millstone of a batting average to make room for Kelly Gruber, who remains the Great Unknown, but at this point, carries a much steeper upside than Gaetti, the Far-Less-Than-Great Known.

To do this, the Angels will eat the remainder of Gaetti’s contract, a $5-million gulp.

It may not bring back Harvey, or Jim Abbott, but at last it is a sign, a glowing ember in the desolate darkness, that suggests the Autrys still cast an eye, from time to time, on the baseball side of their baseball business.

Of course, it took some common sense, spoken by a man named Buck, to drive the point home. But if money is what talks within the Angel organization, it pays to use the proper language.

Buck Rodgers, the navigator of this unlikely voyage, began pushing for Gaetti’s release once it became apparent the Angels were in dire need of some deep-ball production, Gruber was healthy enough to try to provide it, and there was no other fat to be trimmed from the roster.

Cut the pitching staff from 11 to 10? Rodgers needs more relief pitchers, not fewer.

Cut the catching corps from three to two? Rodgers held out all spring for three and isn’t about to give one up now. Was it mere coincidence that Rodgers chose last weekend to drag his security blanket, Ron Tingley, out of the linen closet for his first start of the season?

Underlying message: See, we better keep this guy around.

Rodgers helped his cause with a fairly air-tight argument in the Gaetti case. We have to pay Gaetti $3 million either way, Rodgers reasoned. If we release him, what’s another $109,000 for a minium-wage roster replacement?

Looking at it another way, the Angels had already paid Gaetti $6 million to finish seventh and sixth. If they have to pay off another $5 million to finish first, it’s a relative steal.

Gaetti leaves the Angels the same way he came: Still sliding after all these years. His batting average in Anaheim slipped from .246 in ’91 to .226 in ’92 to its final resting place of .188 in ’93. It’s not as if the Angels hadn’t been warned. In his last five seasons with Minnesota, Gaetti’s home-run totals had pulled a similar move--from 34 to 31 to 28 to 19 to 16.

Back in the winter of ‘90-91, during Gaetti’s new-look free agency, the Yankees backed out of the bidding because, as one team official put it then, “There were too many question marks there. Some scouts think he isn’t what he once was. . . . You may think he can bounce back from his last two years, but can he bounce back for four more years?”

Four more years. That’s what Gaetti and his agent were asking. The Angels, with Jack Howell, Bobby Rose and Donnie Hill as their options at third base, figured they had no other choice.

(Actually they did, but they regarded Terry Pendleton as too fat to sign to a contract. And, as we all know, Pendleton was never heard from again.)

The Angels accepted Gaetti, flaws and all. They threw him $11.4 million, they threw in the fourth year, they threw the dice and, surprise, surprise, came up snake-eyes for the 1,243rd time in franchise history.

Now, up steps Gruber. Let’s see: 31-year-old third baseman, big contract, declining production, was a Gold Glover before the injury.

Gary Gruber?

Kelly Gaetti?

Here, there is no set price for changing a tune. All the Angels could do Thursday was plunk another $5 million into the jukebox and hope for the best.