Wright, Gaspar Are Set to Sign : Baseball: Former Katella pitcher in agreement with Cleveland. Pepperdine pitcher headed to Detroit.

Former Katella High School pitcher Jaret Wright, the 10th pick in the June draft, has reached agreement with the Cleveland Indians on a deal that includes a $1.2-million signing bonus, believed to be the highest ever received by an Orange County player.

And Pepperdine pitcher Cade Gaspar, a former Capistrano Valley High School and Saddleback College standout, isn’t far behind. Gaspar, the 18th pick in the draft, is flying to Detroit today to sign a contract with the Tigers that will include a bonus “substantially higher” than the $700,000 a team offered before the draft, according to his father, Rod.

However, he said Cade’s bonus was not higher than Wright’s $1.2 million.

“A friend of mine makes $9 an hour, and I think that’s a lot of money,” said Wright, a right-hander who was The Times 1994 player of the year. “I can’t even think about how much money I’m making.”

Wright said he will fly to Cleveland in the next two or three weeks to sign a contract, then report to the organization’s rookie league team at Burlington, N.C. Included in the deal is $80,000 that Wright can use for college tuition if he decides to attend school.

Two weeks ago, when contract talks appeared to reach an impasse, Wright’s parents said the pitcher would likely accept a scholarship to UCLA. Wright was seeking a bonus comparable to the $1.55 million that pitcher Brien Taylor got from the New York Yankees in 1991, but Indian General Manager John Hart’s initial offer reportedly was $850,000.

“Their scouting director, Jay Robertson, came back and was very fair, very cordial,” said Clyde Wright, Jaret’s father and a former Angel pitcher. “There wasn’t a lot of bickering back and forth. We put the cards on the table, moved them around, and this is what we came up with.”

Wright, a 6-foot-2, 220-pounder, was 7-2 with a 2.98 earned-run average and led the county in strikeouts with 100 in 75 innings. His fastball has been clocked at 95 m.p.h., and some observers believe he has the potential to pitch in the major leagues within three years.

“Clyde’s going, ‘You know, I signed for $10,000 (in 1965),’ ” Vicki Wright, Jaret’s mother, said. “You can’t even fathom that kind of money. Of course, the government takes 42% off the top--they whittle it down to something you can survive on.”

Gaspar, a 6-foot-3, 175-pound right-hander whose fastball has been clocked in the 90-m.p.h. range, also is the son of a former major leaguer. Rod Gaspar was a reserve on the New York Mets team that won the 1969 World Series.

Cade pitched in Little League but played shortstop in high school and for much of his community college career. He pitched some in relief at Saddleback and returned to the mound on a full-time basis last season at Pepperdine, where he went 6-1 with a 2.30 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 82 1/3 innings.

“He has a real fresh arm, and that’s one thing the scouts like a lot,” Rod Gaspar said in April.

After spending this weekend in Detroit, Gaspar will report to Lakeland, Fla., to pitch for the Tigers’ Class A team in the Florida State League.