Percival Weighing Future With Team

The Angels are expected to pick up a $5.25-million option on closer Troy Percival for next season, and they will likely explore a long-term deal this winter in hopes of securing the right-hander for another three or four years.

But there is some question whether Percival, who has reestablished himself as one of baseball’s most reliable closers, would be open to such a deal.

Percival, 32, is nearing the end of his seventh big league season, and he is yet to reach the playoffs. He has said repeatedly that he has all the money he needs; his primary goal is to win the World Series.

To that end, Percival will sit down with his agent, Paul Cohen, in the next week or two to decide whether he would be better off playing out 2002 and becoming a free agent or signing another long-term deal with the Angels.

“I would love to win here, but if it’s not going to happen here, I want it to happen somewhere,” Percival said in July, when his name started popping up in trade rumors. “If we are rebuilding again ... how many times do you want to go through that?”

The Angels surged into the wild-card race last month, moving to within five games of Oakland on Aug. 24, but a 4-7 stretch through Thursday knocked them 11 games behind the A’s entering Friday night.

Percival, who is 4-2 with a 2.85 earned-run average and 38 saves in 41 opportunities, must decide this winter whether the Angels can contend in baseball’s most competitive division, the American League West, or whether he’d be better off taking his World Series hopes elsewhere.