Vaughn Trade to Mets Is in Place

The Angels have worked out a trade to send Mo Vaughn to the New York Mets for pitcher Kevin Appier, but the deal is contingent on the Mets negotiating an agreement with Vaughn to defer some of the $50 million he is owed over the next three years.

According to a baseball source, the Mets have 72 hours to restructure Vaughn’s contract with the first baseman’s agent, Jeff Moorad, but the source did not know when that 72-hour window began.

Vaughn, who sat out the 2001 season because of a ruptured biceps tendon, recently voiced a strong desire to return to the East Coast--he grew up in Norwalk, Conn., attended Seton Hall in New Jersey and played eight seasons with the Boston Red Sox--and is strongly motivated to come to terms with the Mets.

The Mets are one of six teams, selected by Vaughn and the Angels, that Vaughn can be traded to. If an agreement with the Mets can be reached, the trade will be announced within days.

Vaughn, the 1995 American League most valuable player, is scheduled to make $10 million in 2002, $15 million in 2003 and $15 million in 2004. A club option for $14 million in 2005 can be bought out for $2 million, and the Angels owe Vaughn an additional $8 million in 2003, the deferred part of a $13-million signing bonus Vaughn received in 1998.

The Angels are expected to pay the $8 million, but that still left a $10-million discrepancy between the $32 million Appier will make over the next three years and the $42 million Vaughn is guaranteed in salary, including the buyout.

The Mets, who are hoping to keep their payroll in the $95-million range, tried to package first baseman Todd Zeile, who will make $6 million in 2002, and shortstop Rey Ordonez, who will make $12.25 million over the next two years, in the deal, but the Angels, who are also in a cost-containment mode and have been for sale for two years, were not interested.

A potential three-team trade that would have sent Vaughn to the Mets and Angel closer Troy Percival to the Dodgers fell apart last week, but talks between Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman and Met General Manager Steve Phillips continued through the weekend, when the idea to re-structure Vaughn’s contract arose.

Reached Monday at his home in Orange County, Stoneman declined to discuss details of his negotiations with the Mets. “We’ve been talking to them, that’s about it,” Stoneman said. “As far as getting something done, I’m not going to comment.”

The commissioner’s office would have to approve the Mets’ 72-hour negotiating window with Vaughn, but when asked if such a window existed, Sandy Alderson, baseball’s executive vice president of operations, said he “couldn’t answer that.”

It is believed, however, that Angel upper management has approved the trade of Vaughn to the Mets. A Walt Disney Co. official nixed a trade during the recent winter meetings that would have sent outfielder Darin Erstad to the Chicago White Sox for four players.

If Vaughn is traded to New York, it would end a three-year stint in Anaheim marked by injury and disappointment. In his first game after signing a six-year, $80-million deal with the Angels, Vaughn stumbled into the first-base dugout while chasing a foul popup and suffered a severely sprained ankle in the 1999 season opener.

A 1999 Angel team picked by many to win the AL West collapsed amid clubhouse dissension after the All-Star break and finished last in the division.

The Angels were more competitive in 2000, and Vaughn had a decent season, batting .272 with 36 home runs and 117 runs batted in. But he led the league with 181 strikeouts, his average was 26 points off his career mark of .298, and his weight ballooned from the 245-pound range to about 260.

Vaughn, a mediocre defensive player, also missed the intensity of playing on the East Coast and often wondered why Southern California fans lacked the passion of fans in Boston and New York. After sitting out last season following elbow surgery in February, Vaughn told a Boston radio station he would love to return to the Red Sox.

Stoneman and Manager Mike Scioscia supported Vaughn publicly, but Disney officials were believed to be incensed with Vaughn’s comments. They were eager to trade Vaughn and didn’t think there would be many takers this winter, especially after reports surfaced that Vaughn had increased to 275 pounds.

But Phillips and a Met contingent traveled to Massachusetts to watch Vaughn work out last Thursday and were convinced the 268-pound Vaughn was fully recovered from surgery and highly motivated to play in New York. The Mets are hoping he will provide lineup protection for Mike Piazza and a powerful left-handed bat they lack.

In Appier, the Angels would have a veteran to lead a promising rotation that includes Jarrod Washburn, Ramon Ortiz and Scott Schoeneweis. Appier went 11-10 with a 3.57 earned-run average in 2001, and the 34-year-old right-hander has a 147-115 career record and 3.63 ERA in 13 seasons.

But Appier also has an unorthodox delivery that some scouts and coaches believe makes him more vulnerable to injury.