Vaughn Might Face a Fine for His Red Sox Trade Talk

Major league baseball is investigating Angel first baseman Mo Vaughn on a possible tampering violation in regard to his recent comments on a Boston radio show that he would be interested in returning to the Red Sox and would be willing to work with his agent and the teams in facilitating it.

Vaughn, who spent six seasons with the Red Sox before signing a six-year, $80-million contract with the Angels before the 1999 season, would probably be fined if found guilty.

“Generally speaking, the tampering rules prohibit a team from publicly discussing the possible acquisition of a player under contract to another team,” Sandy Alderson, baseball’s executive vice president of operations, said Friday.

“They also prohibit an individual player who is under contract to a team from publicly discussing his possible acquisition by another team or from publicly attempting to promote his acquisition by another team.

“Players are advised annually of the rules. I don’t think any confusion exists.”

Alderson refused to speculate on a possible penalty but said, “the results of these investigations in the past have strongly discouraged repetition.”

He added that it probably will be some time before a determination is made in the Vaughn case “because we’re in the middle of the postseason and most of our resources are engaged in the postseason.”

Adam Katz, one of Vaughn’s agents, said he was unaware of the investigation.

“Mo is a very bright and candid guy,” Katz said. “To make an obtuse and general comment about the end of his career and have anyone construe it as tampering is simply silly.”