BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : DiSarcina, Curtis Sign for Security

Shortstop Gary DiSarcina needed only to look at his scarred right thumb. Center fielder Chad Curtis needed only to look at the projected numbers drawn up by his financial adviser.

That was enough for each to sign guaranteed three-year contracts.

Curtis, who looked Thursday as if he still wasn’t sure he made the right decision, will earn $4.5 million over the next three years: $600,000 in 1994, $1.9 million in 1995 and $2 million in 1996.

DiSarcina, who was pleased but hardly ecstatic, received about $2.9 million, but did not want to divulge the details.

“I came into the negotiations asking for quite a bit more,” Curtis said, “but my financial adviser showed me what $4.5 (million) can do for me the rest of my life. That was startling to me.

“Besides, how can I go back to Michigan during the off-season and complain that in the year 1996 I’m only going to make $2 million?

“I’m not going to walk out of here jumping up and down. This is a good deal for the Angels. I want to come back in two years and say, ‘I should have made more.’ ”

Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi said: “That’s the way Chad works. He plays hard. He works hard. So he should negotiate hard. But I think all of the players have a reason to celebrate because they got good deals.”

DiSarcina figured that he might also be short-changing himself until he stopped to consider the fragility of life. He broke his right thumb last Aug. 26 when he was hit by a pitch thrown by Baltimore’s Ben McDonald and missed the remainder of the season. He spent the off-season being fitted for five different casts, wondering if he would be able to return.

“Every time I look at my thumb, and see that zipper on it, I think about how it could have hit my head,” DiSarcina said. It’s the first time I ever got seriously hurt and it scared me.”