Safety Pact Made by Pitchers

The day before the Angels’ first spring training workout last week, pitcher Jarrod Washburn and reliever Brendan Donnelly made what they called a “three-foot pact.”

“We have to stay three feet away from each other, except for a handshake,” Washburn said. Added Donnelly: “It’s for the safety of Washburn and I.”

Last March 3, Washburn fell to the ground while trying to avoid a collision with Donnelly during a spring fielding drill and suffered a sprained left shoulder.

The injury limited the left-hander to two Cactus League starts, and although he didn’t miss a regular-season start, Washburn pitched in pain all year, and it showed: After going 18-6 with a 3.15 earned-run average and helping the Angels win the World Series in 2002, Washburn slipped to 10-15 with a 4.43 ERA in 2003.

“I started off on the wrong foot and never really rebounded from it,” Washburn said. “I altered my mechanics a little bit, and I had limited range of motion in my shoulder. Because of that, I had trouble throwing across my body, and hitting the right side of the plate was a lot harder for me.”

Doctors told Washburn after the injury that if he were to rest for six to eight weeks, he would eliminate the pain in the shoulder.

“I sat out a week,” Washburn said. “If I wanted to pitch pain-free all season, then yeah, I came back too early. But I wasn’t willing to sit out. So I pitched with pain.... I’m pretty stubborn.”

Washburn threw a career-high 207 1/3 innings, but gave up a career-high 34 home runs. His strikeout-to-walk ratio (118 to 54) was off from his previous two seasons, when he combined for 265 strikeouts and 113 walks. He lost some velocity and movement on his fastball, which seemed to lack the late life that often had made Washburn difficult to hit.

In hindsight, was it smart to come back so soon?

“I don’t think it was a bad decision,” Washburn said. “I didn’t pitch as effectively as I would have liked, but I was still able to go out and throw 200 innings and do my best to help the team win, which didn’t occur too often.”

Washburn feels 100% this spring, and “I’m going to stay away from Donnelly so I can feel good all year,” he said. That shouldn’t be a problem, Donnelly said.

“He and I will not be on the same field for drills this spring,” Donnelly said. “It’s the best for all involved.”

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With Tim Salmon moving from right field to full-time designated hitter this season, the Angels will treat the veteran more like a backup outfielder who can spell right fielder Vladimir Guerrero and left fielder Jose Guillen when needed.

That means Salmon will spend some time in spring training playing left field, a position he has never played in the big leagues. Salmon played center field once during his rookie year in 1993, but outside of that game had never strayed beyond right field as an Angel.

“He’ll see [the ball coming off the bat from] different angles this year, but he’ll work hard at it,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “You never know what the season will bring and how your depth will be tested. Some years we’ve gone through seven starting pitchers; other years we’ve gone through 15. Some years you have a thin bench and don’t feel it; other years you need your bench a lot. The depth and versatility Tim could bring us [by playing left field] would be important.”

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Because of a rules loophole that Major League Baseball brought to the attention of Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman this winter, reliever Derrick Turnbow was awarded a fourth option year, meaning that the Angels can send him to triple-A Salt Lake this season without having to pass him through waivers.

Stoneman said the option won’t affect roster decisions, but it would give the Angels, who have three starters -- Ramon Ortiz, John Lackey and Aaron Sele -- battling for the final two rotation spots, more flexibility should they want to keep an extra starter instead of Turnbow in the bullpen at the beginning of the season.

If the hard-throwing Turnbow, who did not allow an earned run in 13 innings last September, were out of options, another team could claim him off waivers if the Angels tried to send him to Salt Lake. With an extra option, Turnbow could go back and forth between Anaheim and Salt Lake for another year, and that would enable the Angels to keep an extra starter as insurance against a rotation injury.