BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : Trade Is ‘Very Unlikely’

General Manager Bill Bavasi held an informal press conference in the dugout Wednesday afternoon so “you guys will understand that trading an outfielder at this point is very, very unlikely.”

He did admit that “common sense” dictates the Angels make a move and as much as admitted that Garret Anderson is the likely candidate, but Bavasi said the price of any of their four young outfielders would be prohibitive.

“If another club is willing to overpay, we’ll listen, but we’re very lucky to have these guys,” Bavasi said. “We couldn’t afford to go out and get even one.

“We’ve all been burned by making the mistake of trying so hard to improve one area of your club that you’re the one who overpays. We’re not going to do anything stupid.”

The Angels need starters and they can’t play four outfielders at once. Switch-hitting Chili Davis, who Bavasi calls the “best designated hitter in baseball,” is signed through 1997. And rookie Darin Erstad is proving invaluable as a leadoff hitter. So a trade still seems inevitable at some point and Anderson probably will be involved.

“Garret looks at the guy in right field [Tim Salmon] and he’s got a multiyear contract,” Bavasi said. “He looks in center and [Jim Edmonds] has a multiyear deal. He knows he’s not signed. He knows he’s talented. And he knows he’s sought after. But the things that make him so attractive outside this ballpark are also very attractive to us.”

Bavasi said he would trade only one of the four outfielders for a No. 1 starter, a very good No. 2, or “a slew of top prospects because that’s what you have to get to be sure you’ll hit on one.

“That said, I’m probably not going to get a whole lot of calls, so I’d say [Anderson] has virtually nothing to worry about.”

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Bavasi says the Angels are in “no hurry” with Erstad and would be comfortable sending him back to the minors when Edmonds returns from his thumb injury sometime later this month.

But Erstad, who turned two ground balls to shortstop into hits and sparked the Angels’ ninth-inning rally Tuesday night, has made a huge impact.

“He definitely puts pressure on a defense,” Manager Marcel Lachemann said. “You can’t catch the ball, read [AL President] Gene Budig’s name and then throw it over. You’re going to have to make a play every time.”

Ranger second baseman Mark McLemore apparently has reached that realization. Erstad hit a bouncer to second in the first inning and McLemore raced over to backhand it and fired a bullet that almost knocked over first baseman Rene Gonzales.