BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : Anderson Traded for Grimsley

Brian Anderson fell out of the Angels’ starting rotation last September and fell out of favor with the front office this winter. Thursday, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians for pitchers Jason Grimsley and Pep Harris on the eve of the Angels’ first spring-training workout at Tempe, Ariz.

So ended the brief Angel career of a left-hander who was the third overall pick of the 1993 draft, was in the major leagues by the end of his first professional season and had a nagging problem of throwing baseballs that wound up in the outfield bleachers.

The 24 home runs Anderson gave up in 99 2/3 innings last season, including 12 in his last five starts, were only part of the reason the Geneva, Ohio, native will have a chance to pitch for his hometown team in 1996. A contentious contract dispute also paved his road out of Anaheim.

According to Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi, Anderson and his agent, Ron Shapiro, were planning to file a grievance disputing the tendering of Anderson’s 1996 contract.

Bavasi wouldn’t discuss specifics of the grievance, and neither Shapiro nor Anderson, who was traveling to Florida on Thursday night, could be reached.

But a contract can be voided for a number of reasons, the two most common of which are a team that fails to mail a contract by the tendering deadline or tried to cut a player’s salary by more than the maximum 20%.

Bavasi, who has been trying to trade Anderson since late last season, said the dispute “got heated” in recent weeks.

Grimsley, 28, spent parts of the last three seasons with the Indians. Last year, he had no decisions in 15 appearances before being sent to triple-A Buffalo in July. He was 5-3 with a 2.91 earned-run average at Buffalo.

Harris, 23, was 6-3 with a 2.39 ERA and 10 saves as a reliever for double-A Canton-Akron last season.