Top-Shelf Moves

With each purchase this winter, the Angels took another step away from the economical, home-grown World Series championship team that captivated fans and rival general managers. As new owner Arte Moreno prepared to unwrap his latest and largest purchase, superstar outfielder Vladimir Guerrero, the Angels have evolved from a model franchise into a target, the big-spending kind that evokes jealousy as well as respect.

“I really don’t care, as long as I’m on a team that wants to win,” pitcher Jarrod Washburn said Sunday. “It looks to me like Mr. Moreno wants to win.”

Along with a new red cap, the Angels plan to hand Guerrero what could become the largest contract in franchise history. The contract is believed to include five guaranteed years, at $70 million, and an option for a sixth year. If the option is exercised, the Guerrero contract would top the six-year, $80-million deal with former Angel first baseman Mo Vaughn in both average annual value and total value.

General Manager Bill Stoneman confirmed Sunday the Angels have reached agreement with Guerrero and said he is scheduled to undergo a physical examination this morning. Assuming he passes, the Angels plan to introduce Guerrero, 27, at an afternoon news conference at Angel Stadium.

Angel players, already tickled by the previous arrivals of free agents Bartolo Colon, Kelvim Escobar and Jose Guillen, were just short of delirious on learning that Moreno had lured the best player available in free agency and one of the best players in baseball at an age when his best years might be in front of him.

“No one knows how much better he’s going to get -- and he’s awesome right now,” shortstop David Eckstein said. “It puts a smile on your face.”

The Angels’ player payroll projects to $108 million, far beyond the club-record $76 million on opening day last season but still below the threshold that would require the team to pay a luxury tax. The payroll should drop a bit, with Washburn and Ramon Ortiz on the trading block because of the Angels’ surplus in starting pitching.

But the acquisition of Guerrero is the most dramatic evidence yet of Moreno’s plan to generate additional revenue by extending the Angels’ reach outside Orange County and throughout Southern California and beyond.

“From a marketing standpoint, it’s outstanding,” Angel President Dennis Kuhl said. “We have what you call a marquee player.”

Salaries have long since soared past the point where a star player can sell enough tickets to pay for his salary, and in any case the Angels attracted a record three million fans last season without Guerrero.

But with him, and with the other free agents added to a team that won the World Series 15 months ago, Moreno can better persuade potential corporate sponsors that their customers will be watching the Angels.

He also hopes to convince Channel 9 and Fox Sports Net to broadcast more Angel games as well as to sign lucrative deals for Spanish-language television and radio broadcasts.

However, Kuhl said the signing of an all-Latino quartet of free agents did not reflect a strategy to expand the Angels’ Latino audience. The team won’t attract fans of any background, he said, if it does not win.

“When you’re a baseball fan, you want to see the best players out there,” he said. “We look at who the best players are. We’re expanding into more territory, but not just by an ethnic group or a demographic group. That’s all we’re doing, trying to create more fans.”

The acquisitions subject Moreno to significant risk. He approved a four-year, $51-million contract for Colon, the richest deal ever awarded to a pitcher by the Angels. No other team would guarantee more than three years, concerned about Colon’s sometimes-poor conditioning habits and the prohibitive cost of insuring contracts beyond three years.

Guerrero’s risk factor is a back injury, a herniated disk that forced him to sit out 39 games for the Montreal Expos last season. The New York Mets refused to extend their guarantee to Guerrero beyond three years, citing an inability to obtain insurance against another back injury.

Last year’s injury did not require surgery. He returned to play in 62 of the Expos’ last 64 games. The Expos offered Guerrero a five-year, $75-million contract after receiving clearance from the team’s medical staff.

“Our doctors gave us a comfort zone,” Montreal General Manager Omar Minaya said. “And we’d seen him perform great after he came back. There is a risk, but at the end of the day our doctors felt comfortable.”

The Baltimore Orioles promised to guarantee six years. The Dodgers last week discussed the parameters of a contract with Guerrero, although they were reluctant to guarantee more than four years and ultimately done in by their tenuous ownership situation.

With major league owners scheduled to vote this month on whether to approve the bid of would-be Dodger buyer Frank McCourt, a source said Sunday that McCourt asked Commissioner Bud Selig whether some owners might vote against him if he spent freely to acquire Guerrero yet presented a financing package heavily dependent on loans. Selig offered no assurances, the source said, and McCourt sent word to General Manager Dan Evans to cease talks with Guerrero.

Guerrero might be the ultimate low-maintenance player in the major leagues. In Montreal, he lived with his mother, who delighted teammates and opponents by preparing home-cooked Dominican specialties.

He wears no batting gloves and no jewelry. He shows up on time, says little to anyone, plays every day and hits everything. In a minor league game, he reportedly hit a home run on a ball that bounced in the dirt.

He runs well and throws hard, every now and then too aggressively in both areas. He is a four-time All-Star and the youngest player in major league history to post five consecutive seasons with a .300 batting average, 30 home runs and 100 runs batted in.

“I don’t see five players better than him in baseball,” Minaya said. “If I were an Anaheim Angel fan, I’d be very excited to be able to see a player like Vladimir Guerrero on a daily basis. He’s everything you’ve heard about him and more, not only as a great player but as a very nice kid and a very good person. There’s not a word you can say negative about him.”

The Expos did not offer salary arbitration to Guerrero, so the Angels will not forfeit a draft pick to Montreal as compensation.

Guerrero joins Garret Anderson, the All-Star game MVP, and former American League home run champ Troy Glaus in the heart of what could be a devastating lineup. He’ll play right field, alongside Anderson and Guillen in the outfield.

Angel Manager Mike Scioscia called Darin Erstad on Sunday morning, alerting the Gold Glove center fielder that he would move to first base. Erstad said he had “plenty of time” to adjust to the position before the season begins and did not foresee a recurrence of the hamstring trouble that plagued him in 1998, when he split time between first base and the outfield. He sat out most of last season because of a hamstring injury but is healthy now and said he should remain that way so long as the Angels do not juggle him between the infield and outfield.

Erstad declined to proclaim the new and improved Angels the team to beat.

“I like our chances,” he said. “On paper, we look very tough. We have to come together as a group and win those tough games.”

The Angels cited strong clubhouse chemistry as one reason they made no personnel changes last winter. One year later, they have added four prominent free agents and lost popular teammates.

“I think it’s something we’ll have to work on, but I don’t think it’s a concern,” Erstad said. “It’s very important to have that chemistry, but we still have enough guys that have been around and can help the new guys. And Scioscia is so easy to play for, so it will be an easy transition.”

Even after reading about the Guerrero signing in newspapers and hearing about it on television, Eckstein said he was still struggling to believe it. After all, Moreno had been plenty good to his Angels before landing Guerrero.

“Unbelievable pickup,” Eckstein said. “You get a player with his qualities, after all the guys we’ve already picked up? Golly.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Say Hey

How good is newest Angel Vladimir Guerrero? He has played 1,004 games in his career and his numbers are remarkably similar to Willie Mays’ numbers through his first 1,004 games:

*--* Guerrero Category Mays 3,763 AT BATS 3,825 641 RUNS 730 1,215 HITS 1,212 226 DOUBLES 192 34 TRIPLES 74 234 HOME RUNS 235 702 RUNS BATTED IN 666 123 STOLEN BASES 168 323 AVERAGE 317 390 ON-BASE PCT. 392 588 SLUGGING PCT. 590

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Times staff writer Ross Newhan contributed to this report.