Snow to Undergo Shoulder Surgery : Baseball: Angel first baseman will miss the opening of spring training. Plans to include him in trade are on hold.

Angel first baseman J.T. Snow was diagnosed Friday with a torn cartilage in his left shoulder and a slight tear of his rotator cuff that will cause him to miss the opening of spring training.

Snow, who will undergo surgery Thursday, will be sidelined at least two months. He was informed that he might not be ready to play until late February or early March.

“Who knows,” Snow said, “the way it looks, spring training might not start on time anyway.

“I’m not too concerned. In a couple of months, I should be fully recovered. At least we know this will take care of it, and I’ll definitely be ready by the start of the season.”

Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi, however, was cautious about Snow’s prognosis.

“This concerns me,” Bavasi said. “It’s still surgery. Anytime a doctor does something surgically, it makes me feel uncomfortable.

“What concerns me is that we’re talking about a guy who needs a lot of things to go right. We have some faith in the guy but you hate for him to go through this agony, and now this is one more thing we have to overcome.”

The news of Snow’s injury ends any notions the Angels had of trading Snow. The Angels shopped Snow at the general managers’ meetings, and talked of putting him in a trade package. Now, any deal will be put on hold.

If Snow’s progress is delayed, the Angels have several options at first base. They can sign free agent Mickey Tettleton, or try Eduardo Perez, Jim Edmonds or Garret Anderson at first base.

The Angels still are hoping Perez will be their everyday third baseman, but he has struggled defensively in winter ball in Puerto Rico, and several scouts insist Perez will have to be moved to first base.

“We’re still committed to giving him a shot at third base,” Bavasi said. “It may not always look pretty, but he gets the ball there.”

Snow, who spent the first two months of the 1994 season with triple-A Vancouver, batted .220 with eight homers and drove in 30 runs in 61 games. He wound up starting more games at first than any other Angel during the season.

He went to Venezuela in October to play winter ball, but suffered his shoulder injury about a month ago when he dived for a ball while playing left field. He left Venezuela when his shoulder failed to improve, but it was considered only a sprain until Dr. Lewis Yocum discovered the tears Friday while examining the magnetic resonance imaging test.

“I’m not going to get down about this,” said Snow, who never has undergone surgery. “I’m not looking at it in a bad way. I went down to Venezuela to improve myself, so I’m not going to second-guess that decision.

“It’s not like this is major surgery or anything.”

In other news Friday, the Angels offered to trade center fielder Chad Curtis to the San Diego Padres for right-handed pitcher Andy Ashby. The proposal, according to a club source, was rejected by the Padres.

Also, former Angel center fielder Gary Pettis was hired to become their roving base-running instructor and Steve Renko was hired as pitching coach at Class-A Cedar Rapids.