Angels Try to Keep Cost of Success Low

The head of the Walt Disney Co.’s sports division said recent low-budget hires by the Angels do not mean the team is in a cost-cutting mode to make it more attractive to potential buyers.

“Any changes that get made here are with a vision of making this team work,� club President Tony Tavares said.

After four months of negotiations to buy Disney’s Angels and Mighty Ducks, Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III said last month he would only consider a minority investment. Several potential buyers have approached Disney since then, Tavares said, but none proceeded to formal negotiations.

“We are not close to selling,� Tavares said. “There are no active discussions.�

Since Nicholas and his investment partners backed away, the Angels have hired two executives--General Manager Bill Stoneman and Manager Mike Scioscia--at entry-level salaries for those jobs. In both cases, the Angels considered more experienced candidates, ones who presumably would have commanded higher salaries, before hiring a first-time general manager and first-time manager.

And, in the first significant player decision since talks ceased with the Nicholas group, the Angels have all but invited Chuck Finley to leave. Although he is the lone remaining link to the Angels’ last division championship team of 1986, and although he is the best pitcher on a team desperate for quality pitching, Tavares and Stoneman have strongly suggested the Angels will not match the three-year, $25-million offers Finley is believed to have received from the Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees.

While potential buyers would undoubtedly prefer to assume as few long-term, big-money contracts as possible, Tavares strongly denied any order from Disney’s corporate headquarters to minimize such liabilities. In the case of the manager, Tavares said, he offered Don Baylor a contract worth more than $1 million annually--more than Scioscia will make over the life of his three-year contract--albeit after Baylor had all but concluded an agreement to manage the Chicago Cubs.

“Anybody that makes the comment we wouldn’t pay for a manager is a moron,� Tavares said.

In the case of Finley, Tavares said, the Angels are simply wondering why they should increase the payroll to retain the players from a last-place team.

“If it’s absolutely critical you win next year, you sign Finley,� former Angel president Richard Brown said. “If you let Finley go, you send the message you’re going to make this a more sane business enterprise.

“You’re accomplishing two things at the same time. You’re going to make it more positive as far as finances go, and you’re going to make it more attractive to a potential buyer.�