Angels Wait as Winfield Fumes in Limbo

Dave Winfield is coming!

Dave Winfield is coming!

Dave Winfield isn’t coming!

Dave Winfield isn’t coming!

No wonder Mike Port doesn’t make more trades. Even when the Angels get their man, they don’t get their man.

The Angels say Winfield is an Angel. The New York Yankees say Winfield is an Angel. But Winfield, who has a say in the matter, says he’s catching “a cab for limbo,” which, to my knowledge, has no major league franchise.

Right now, the Angels, Yankees and Winfield are embroiled in a numbers game. Winfield’s claim is that he’s a 10-5 man--10 years in the big leagues, the past five with the same team--and that gives him veto power over any trade. The Yankees counter-claim with seven--the number of teams Winfield already had approved, by contract, as acceptable should he be traded.

The Angels are one of the seven.

So what’s the deal with the deal? Winfield already gave his OK on Anaheim and the Yankees sent him there. What’s more, Winfield can’t stand playing for George Steinbrenner. The only thing worse is not playing for George Steinbrenner--Winfield’s latest plight ever since Yankee Manager Bucky Dent began platooning him with Claudell Washington, who had been platooning with the Angels until Port traded him for Luis Polonia, who wasn’t allowed to platoon with anyone.

Confused?

So is Winfield. That’s really all that’s at play here. Winfield is headed for a team that wants him, but the trade was consummated without his knowledge, so he feels he’s been wronged. If proper channels had been navigated--if Winfield had been asked first--this whole messy fallout could have been avoided.

But when’s the last time Steinbrenner went through proper channels?

This is one relationship that couldn’t end amicably. How could it? It began with Steinbrenner insulting Winfield (“He’s no Reggie”), it smoldered when Winfield fired back (his biography), and it incinerated when the lawsuits began to be filed.

Now, it may take binding arbitration to bring it to a close.

Port is not one for loose ends and he’d have waited to announce it, but the Yankees couldn’t. You deal with Steinbrenner, you deal with the consequences. The story that hit the wires seemed to catch the Angels off-guard--for a couple of hours, the trade was Winfield for “a player to be named later”--and the Angel publicity staff was forced to dispatch a quick press release that included the name of the other player, Mike Witt.

Dave Winfield for Mike Witt. Three years ago, such a trade would’ve interrupted regular TV programming. But in 1990, both teams are left to wonder what they’re getting and how much of it is damaged.

Winfield is 38 and has driven in six runs since the end of the 1988 season. Back surgery caused him to miss all of 1989 and a .213 batting average has caused him to miss much of 1990. After going 0 for 22 in late April, Winfield became a part-time player on the sixth-place team in the American League East.

Witt, who turns 30 in two months, is currently the reverse of that against the American League: 0-3. If his Angel career was charted on a graph, it would resemble the Crash of ’29. Since 1986, Witt’s victory totals have taken the plunge, from 18 to 16 to 13 to nine to ground zero.

Once the Angels made Mark Langston a rich man, Witt became the sixth starter in a five-man rotation. He was the odd man out, banished to the bullpen and let out only for special occasions, such as the last two innings of Langston’s first-week no-hitter.

With the Yankees, Witt will get the chance to start again. And he’s definitely going to the Yankees. That much is certain. Even if Winfield stays, Witt will be wearing pinstripes within 72 hours and the Angels will have to think up some new compensation.

Maybe they can get Claudell back. He’s still wanted in Anaheim.

Or maybe Winfield will start to warm to the idea once he rolls it over in his mind a while. He should reconsider his options.

Gene Autry or George Steinbrenner.

Happy Anaheim Stadium, where .500 teams draw 2.4 million fans, or the Bronx Zoo.

Playing the outfield or not playing the outfield.

Then again, Winfield has seen the Angels play this year, so you never know.

The excitement is only beginning. Should Dave stay or should he go? When is arbitration scheduled? And if he is indeed an Angel, what happens then? Where does he play?

Left field? That aborts the Luis Polonia leadoff experiment awfully fast, doesn’t it?

Right field? That either ousts Dante Bichette--and how can the Angels afford to oust a .295 hitter?--or it moves Bichette to center field, which would oust Devon White.

Can the Angels afford to do that? Try them.

There may have been better times to trade for Winfield--1987 would have been nice--and, yet, in another light, there never has been a better time. In context, Winfield is the perfect fit for the Angels, the right man for the moment at hand.

Much like the team that wants him, Dave Winfield isn’t sure if he’s coming or going.

DAVE WINFIELD’S CAREER STATS

YR TEAM AB R H D T HR RBI BA 1973 SD 141 9 39 4 1 3 12 .277 1974 SD 498 57 132 18 4 20 75 .265 1975 SD 509 74 136 20 2 15 76 .267 1976 SD 492 81 139 26 4 13 69 .283 1977 SD 615 104 169 29 7 25 92 .275 1978 SD 587 88 181 30 5 24 97 .308 1979 SD 597 97 184 27 10 34 118 .308 1980 SD 597 89 154 25 6 20 87 .276 1981 NY (A) 388 52 114 25 1 13 68 .294 1982 NY (A) 539 84 151 24 8 37 106 .280 1983 NY (A) 598 99 169 26 8 32 116 .283 1984 NY (A) 567 106 193 34 4 19 100 .340 1985 NY (A) 633 105 174 34 6 26 114 .275 1986 NY (A) 565 90 148 31 5 24 104 .262 1987 NY (A) 575 83 158 22 1 27 97 .275 1988 NY (A) 559 96 180 37 2 25 107 .322 1989* 1990 NY (A) 61 7 13 3 0 2 6 .213 Totals 8482 1321 2434 415 74 359 1444 .287

* 1989 NY (A) (Injured, did not play)

MIKE WITT’S CAREER STATS

YR TEAM W-L ERA G SHO IP H BB SO 1981 Angels 8-9 3.28 22 1 129 123 47 75 1982 Angels 8-6 3.51 33 1 179 2/3 176 47 85 1983 Angels 7-14 4.91 43 0 154 173 75 77 1984 Angels 15-11 3.47 34 2 246 2/3 227 84 196 1985 Angels 15-9 3.56 35 1 250 228 98 180 1986 Angels 18-10 2.84 34 3 269 218 73 208 1987 Angels 16-14 4.01 36 0 247 252 84 192 1988 Angels 13-16 4.15 34 2 249 2/3 263 87 133 1989 Angels 9-15 4.54 33 0 220 252 48 123 1990 Angels 0-3 1.77 10 0 20 1/3 19 13 14 Totals 109-107 3.76 314 10 1965 1/3 1931 656 1283