Angels Pick Up Wallach, Howell in the Bargain Bin : Baseball: Moves could create competition in the infield and free up cash for pitching help.

The Angels began a low-cost renovation of the third-base position Tuesday by signing former Dodger free-agent Tim Wallach and former Angel Jack Howell to one-year contracts. The moves could leave the team with an antique look in the corner of the infield previously manned by Tony Phillips.

Wallach is a five-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner, but he is 38 and coming off an injury-plagued season with the Dodgers. He will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee this week to remove floating cartilage.

Howell, who hit .238 with 78 home runs and 258 runs batted in as an Angel from 1985-91, returned from a 3 1/2-year career in Japan in good health. But at 33, he’s hardly the young prospect the Angels were grooming for the third-base spot in the mid-1980s.

“We’re not concerned about their age any more than we were concerned about [reliever] Lee Smith’s age [37],” assistant general manager Tim Mead said of the possible platoon of the left-handed hitting Howell and the right-handed Wallach. “We’re not looking for 100-RBI seasons from them, and they’re not signed to multi-year contracts.”

Wallach, a career .258 hitter with 248 homers and 1,083 RBIs, and Howell, who had 100 homers and 272 RBIs for the Yakult Swallows and Yomiuri Giants in Japan, represent low-risk investments for the Angels.

Wallach signed a one-year contract for $400,000, of which only $50,000 is guaranteed. He must make the team to receive the other $350,000, and his deal includes $100,000 in incentives if he makes 225 plate appearances.

Howell’s contract will pay him $300,000 if he makes the team and $100,000 in incentives for plate appearances.

Thus, the combined salaries of the team’s potential 1996 third basemen will be millions less than Phillips’ 1995 salary of $3.5 million, $1.9 million of which was paid by the Angels.

That might allow the Angels, who hope to re-sign free-agent left-handers Chuck Finley and Jim Abbott and add another right-handed starter, to free up more money for pitching.

As for Phillips, Mead said, “Resource-wise, it’s tough to imagine him coming back. We would have loved to have him, but we have to work within the [financial] structure we have.”

Money was hardly a concern for Wallach, who has seen his salary slide from $3.4 million in 1994 to $2.175 million in 1995 to $400,000 in 1996.

What appealed to Wallach was the opportunity to close out his baseball career where it began, in Orange County. Wallach played for University High School and Saddleback College, and led Cal State Fullerton to the College World Series championship in 1979.

“There were really only two teams I wanted to play for, the Dodgers or Angels, and it’s obvious the door to the Dodgers [who traded for Seattle third baseman Mike Blowers last week] was closed,” said Wallach, a Yorba Linda resident who was hampered by serious knee and back injuries in 1995.

Howell, who lives in Celina, Texas, said he had other opportunities, in the United States and Japan, but chose the Angels because of his ties with front-office officials and his respect for the coaching staff.

“Playing for [Manager] Marcel Lachemann is going to be exciting, and I always wished the whole time I played there that they’d make Rod Carew the batting instructor,” Howell said. “That didn’t happen, but he’s there now, and I’m really looking forward to working with him.”

General Manager Bill Bavasi said Howell, who can play second base, first base and in the outfield, also might be used in a utility role.

“We’re betting Tim can catch some lightning in a bottle and return to his 1994 form [when he hit .280 with 23 homers and 78 RBIs],” Bavasi said. “If it doesn’t work out, he’ll still have a great career to reflect on. If he puts together another good season, it will be icing on a great career.”

And what of the careers of third baseman Eduardo Perez and second baseman Damion Easley, the young and once-promising Angels who have descended on the depth chart with the acquisitions of Wallach, Howell and infielder Randy Velarde from the New York Yankees?

Bavasi said he expects Perez and Easley to compete for starting jobs, but Perez requested a trade late last season and Easley, who has struggled with averages of .215 and .216 the past two seasons, senses his days as a starter are numbered.

“I don’t see them paying Velarde all that money [$800,000 a year] to be a utility player,” Easley said.

Easley, who is eligible for arbitration this winter, said he has no immediate plans to ask for a trade.

“But they’re crazy if they think I’m going to settle for being a utility player,” Easley said. “I have no desire to do that.”

Said Bavasi: “Damion and Eduardo can’t look at Wallach and Howell and say, ‘I’m out.’ If you look at the contracts they signed, there’s nothing financial about them that is going to run [Damion and Eduardo] out. But knowing the type of people Tim and Jack are, they better have some character to compete with them.”

Wallach won’t mind platooning, because he may not be physically able to handle the rigors of playing every day. He opened the 1995 season on the disabled list and missed 22 games because of lower back pain, which forced him to sit out another week in early August.

Wallach tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Aug. 26 and was expected to miss the rest of the season but surprisingly returned--without having surgery--on Sept. 11. He finished the season hitting .266 with nine homers and 38 RBIs in 97 games.

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Veterans on the Corner

In an effort to replace free-agent Tony Phillips at third base, the Angels apparently will attempt a platoon with the signing Tuesday of Tim Wallach and Jack Howell to minor-league contracts. Here are their career highlights:

TIM WALLACH

* In 11 full seasons and parts of two others with Montreal, the former Cal State Fullerton standout hit 204 home runs, drove in 905 runs and batted .259. His best season was 1987, when he drove in 123 runs and batted .298, with 26 home runs.

* Acquired by trade before the 1993 season, Wallach hit 44 home runs and drove in 178 runs in three seasons with the Dodgers, batting .254.

JACK HOWELL

* Batted .238 with 78 home runs and 258 runs batted in in seven season with the Angels, leading American League third basemen in fielding percentage in 1989. Had major league highs of 23 home runs and 64 runs batted in in 1987.

* After being traded to San Diego midway through the 1991 season, Howell left for Japan for 1992 and hit 100 home runs in 3 1/2 seasons with the Yakult Swallows and Yomiuri Giants.