Angels Plan Three Offers for Salmon : Baseball: Rookie of the year will have several options to consider. Tanana, 40, signs triple-A contract.

The Angels are expected to offer right fielder Tim Salmon a guaranteed contract Thursday that will keep him in the organization through 1997.

The Angels, who have had preliminary talks with Ted Updike, Salmon’s agent, are scheduled to submit their proposals in a formal meeting in Tempe, Ariz.

Salmon, who last season became the first Angel to win the American League’s rookie of the year award, is expected to receive three offers: a one-year deal for about $500,000, three years for about $4 million, and four years for about $7 million.

“I’m very, very optimistic we can get this done,” Updike said. “We’re anxious to get to the table and to the same page.

“Tim has a very close relationship with the Angels, and we have an idea of what the long-term future holds between Tim and the Angels.”

While the Angels are trying to nourish their future, they also are resurrecting a bit of their past, inviting 40-year-old pitcher Frank Tanana to camp. Tanana, the Angels’ first-round pick in 1971 who was traded 13 years ago, signed a triple-A contract Tuesday and will report Saturday to spring training.

“It’s going to feel a little funny,” Tanana said. “I mean, outside (of coaches) Jimmie Reese and Bobby Knoop, everybody else is gone.

“But I’m glad for the opportunity. It was a case where you believe in yourself, but you’re just waiting to see if anybody else still does.”

Tanana, who was 7-17 last season with a 4.35 ERA pitching for the New York Yankees and Mets, did not receive any major league offers during the winter. The Angels remained uninterested until left-hander Joe Magrane underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow last week, which is expected to sideline him until May.

While salaries of $100,000 were exorbitant when Tanana last was an Angel, Salmon has the opportunity of being accorded the largest contract given to a second-year player. It comes on the heels of the three-year, $4.2-million contract provided last week to Dodger catcher Mike Piazza, the National League’s rookie of the year.

“I think that was a good ice-breaker for us,” Updike said. “From all indications, they’d like to do the same for Tim.”

Considering that no other Angel player has a contract guaranteed past 1995, it’s quite possible General Manager Bill Bavasi might soon have other suitors at his door seeking multiyear offers.

“I’ll tell them that’s fine,” Bavasi said. “ ‘Go ahead and have a year like Tim’s, and then we’ll talk.’ ”