Angels Add Sele as Vaughn Waits

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Dec. 27, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

While Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman spent much of the past week negotiating a trade that is expected to send Mo Vaughn to the New York Mets for pitcher Kevin Appier, he found time to do a little extra holiday shopping.

The Angels signed free-agent pitcher Aaron Sele to a three-year, $24-million contract Wednesday, a surprising addition to a rotation that includes the developing Jarrod Washburn, Ramon Ortiz and Scott Schoeneweis and could be bolstered by Appier as early as today.

The Walt Disney Co. has been trying to sell the Angels for two years, and the team appeared to be in a cost-containment mode, but Stoneman secured one of the better starters in a pitching-thin market to a deal that will pay the former Seattle Mariner right-hander $7.5 million in 2002, $8 million in 2003 and $8.5 million in 2004.

Stoneman said that Sele’s signing “isn’t going to alter other things that we might have in mind,” so it is not expected to affect a trade for Appier that the Angels and Mets have agreed to and will be completed if the Mets can work out an agreement with Vaughn to defer some of the $50 million he is owed the next three years.

Sele’s contract is the second-largest the Angels have ever awarded a free agent, behind the six-year, $80-million deal they gave Vaughn in 1998, and, it’s the third largest awarded in franchise history behind Vaughn’s and Tim Salmon’s, four-year, $40-million deal. It brings to roughly $48 million the amount the Angels have committed to eight players in 2002: Vaughn or Appier, Sele, Troy Percival, Garret Anderson, Darin Erstad, Troy Glaus and Dennis Cook.

“I don’t know what people thought we were going to do, but not a whole lot has changed in terms of our objectives,” Stoneman said. “I don’t know that this portends anything other than we finally struck a deal with a guy who, quite frankly, we’ve had interest in for quite some time.”

Sele, 31, may not be the dominant staff ace the Angels have lacked since Chuck Finley was in his prime, but he is 69-35 the last four seasons. Only three major league pitchers--Randy Johnson (76), Greg Maddux (73) and Tom Glavine (71)--have won more games in that span.

Though Sele has struggled in the postseason--he has an 0-6 record in seven playoff starts and lost all three of his American League division series and championship series starts against Cleveland and the New York Yankees in October--he has been a durable and dependable regular-season pitcher, averaging 33 starts a year since 1997 and throwing more than 200 innings in each of the last four seasons.

“I’ve always said a starting pitcher can lose a game all by himself, but he can’t win a game by himself,” Sele said. “I can’t go out there and hit. But I’ve had a chance to play on some great teams, and if you keep a game close for six or seven innings, you’re doing your job. If you keep your team within one run, you have a chance to win.”

An AL all-star in 1998 and 2000, Sele has a 107-68 career record and 4.33 earned-run average in nine seasons. He went 19-11 in 1998 and 18-9 in 1999 for the Texas Rangers. He went 17-10 in 2000 and 15-5 last season for the Mariners. The 6-foot-5, 220-pounder, who has one of baseball’s better overhand curveballs, has not been on the disabled list since 1996.

Sele opened the 2001 season with eight consecutive victories. He finished with a 3.60 ERA, and though he struck out only 114, his lowest total in six years, his control was better; Sele walked 51 batters after averaging 77 walks the last four seasons.

But the Mariners have a surplus of starting pitchers and didn’t want to splurge on Sele when they could go with highly touted youngsters such as Joel Pineiro and Gil Meche for a lot less money.

The Mariners, who won 116 games and finished 41 games ahead of the last-place Angels in the AL West, also made it clear to Sele that their priority was to sign a hitter. Seattle did not offer Sele arbitration, so the Angels will not have to relinquish future draft picks as compensation for signing him.

“I was pretty surprised Seattle didn’t have more interest in me, but when things happen like that, you understand how much of a business this game is,” Sele said. “You just have to move on. I’m excited to be playing for Anaheim, and I think they have a chance to win.”

Sele, who lives in the Seattle area, said he had acceptable offers from two other teams, but none were on the West Coast. He said staying on the West Coast was “a huge factor” in signing with the Angels.

Sele’s agent, Adam Katz, approached the Angels earlier in the off-season, “but we said no at the time because of his asking price,” Stoneman said. That asking price fell in ensuing weeks, and negotiations with Sele heated up again about a week ago.

“I’m delighted he was still available and fit within our budget,” Stoneman said. “I’m not going to shut the door to any other opportunities that come up.”

The Mets were granted a 72-hour window to restructure Vaughn’s contract, a window that expired Wednesday afternoon. No agreement between the Mets and Vaughn’s agent, Jeff Moorad, was reached, but the sides apparently made enough progress that the commissioner’s office extended their deadline to midday today.

However, there was some concern Wednesday night that the trade was being hung up by the Major League Baseball Players Assn., which, according to a source, has reservations about some of the concessions Vaughn is making in the deal.

“We’re still talking,” Moorad told the Associated Press. “Mo is excited about the possibility of playing in New York, and as a result we are trying our best to accommodate everyone involved.”

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WINNER’S CIRCLE

With the signing of Aaron Sele, the Angels improved their rotation with a proven starter. A look at the five best win totals over the last four seasons:

PITCHER Win-Loss

1. Randy Johnson 76-33

2. Greg Maddux 73-38

3. Tom Glavine 71-33

4. Aaron Sele 69-35

5. Pedro Martinez 67-18

6. Roger Clemens 67-27

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Angels, for Starters

With the signing of Aaron Sele, above, a look at the Angels’ projected 2002 rotation (with last season’s statistics):

AARON SELE 15-5, 3.60 ERA

RAMON ORTIZ 13-11, 4.36