Rehab Is Erstad’s Operative Word

Reporting steady progress in his rehabilitation program, Darin Erstad on Friday said he has elected to forgo surgery in his attempt to recover from chronic tendinitis within his right hamstring that sidelined him for most of the season.

“I’ve been seeing improvement, and I want to continue to pursue that avenue,” the Angel center fielder said before Friday’s game, in which his teammates rallied from a three-run deficit to defeat the Texas Rangers, 5-3, at Edison Field. “I’m going to let nature run its course.”

Erstad, limited to 67 games this season, said he would consider surgery if he suffered a setback or his progress slowed but would prefer to avoid an unprecedented procedure to remove a troublesome tendon.

“If something would happen with the procedure, that’s it,” Erstad said. “You’re down to two parts of your hamstring; you blow another one out, you’re not running again....

“If I blow out the thing in July, I won’t second-guess my decision.... I’ll take that over doing the surgery and not being able to play effectively and saying, ‘What if you wouldn’t have done it?’ You can still” have the surgery later.

Erstad said he did not care whether he returned to center field, where he won a Gold Glove award in 2002, or moved to first base, a switch the Angels have pondered for months. General Manager Bill Stoneman said the team would not make a decision on Erstad’s position until spring training.

Stoneman and Erstad praised the play of Chone Figgins, who could become the everyday center fielder next season if the Angels move Erstad to first base.

“I think we’ve seen enough of Chone Figgins out there to know he can play center field,” Stoneman said. “He’s got to get more accustomed to it. There are a few balls he hasn’t gotten real good reads on, but there have been other balls that he’s gotten to that not many guys get to. I think we have a comfort there that Figgie can play.”

Erstad said he would take three weeks off to rest his hamstring before beginning normal off-season workouts that incorporate exercises to strengthen the area. He said he would also continue to receive massage therapy to break up scar tissue.

Stoneman said he is operating under the assumption that Erstad and third baseman Troy Glaus, who is deciding whether to undergo surgery on the partially torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder, would both be ready for the start of spring training.

Garret Anderson received a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 43,485 in the sixth inning Friday when he doubled to become the third Angel player to record 200 hits in a season. Erstad collected 240 hits in 2000 and Alex Johnson had 202 hits in 1970, when he won the American League batting title with a .329 average.

“I don’t really think it’s that important,” said Anderson, who had 195 hits last season. “It’s just one of the motivating factors of playing baseball, to keep pushing yourself and putting up better numbers every year.”

Before the game, Anderson was presented with the Gene Autry trophy as the Angels’ MVP. It was the fourth time in five seasons that the left fielder has won the award. Anderson, who had two hits Friday, scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on Tim Salmon’s single to right-center.