Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

M’S, Angels Top List Of Cuban Defector

From Wire Reports

The Anaheim Angels and Seattle Mariners are the top contenders to sign free agent Orlando Hernandez, the Cuban defector who was once his nation’s top pitcher, The Associated Press has learned.

Hernandez, the half-brother of World Series MVP Livan Hernandez of the Florida Marlins, has drawn the interest of several clubs including Arizona, Tampa Bay, San Diego and the New York Yankees since defecting in December.

But a source close to the negotiations said talks with the Angels and Mariners had gone the furthest, with Anaheim holding the edge because it also offered a movie deal from the Walt Disney Co., which owns the team.

“It’s between those two teams,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Orlando Hernandez, 28, a star pitcher on Cuba’s national team, was banned from baseball in his homeland after his younger brother defected while on a team trip in Mexico in 1995. Livan Hernandez went on to stardom last season with the Marlins.

The elder Hernandez, who had resisted defecting for years, escaped Cuba on Dec. 26 with seven others on a small boat. They were picked up a few days later on a remote Bahamian island by the U.S. Coast Guard and handed over to Bahamian authorities.

Hernandez was offered a U.S. visa, along with his common-law wife and Cuban team catcher Alberto Hernandez, who is not related. But all except Hernandez’s wife ended up in Costa Rica when U.S. authorities refused visas to the others in the group.

Several teams went to Costa Rica last week to watch Hernandez, who impressed scouts with a fastball that was clocked between 91-93 mph.

M’s camp notes

One of the funnier exchanges of the spring was between former major league shortstop Rick Burleson - now a Class A manager for the Mariners - and Alex Rodriguez. The two were talking just before an early-morning infield drill and Rodriguez said he had admired Burleson’s big-league career.

“You broke in in 1976, didn’t you?” Rodriguez asked.

“No,” replied Burleson, “I was in the 1975 World Series.”

“Oh, that’s right - you won that, didn’t you?” Rodriguez asked.

“No, we lost,” Burleson said.

“Do you remember that Series?”

“No,” admitted Rodriguez. “That’s the year I was born.”

General manager Woody Woodward says the team is still open to conversations about the availability of Randy Johnson, but said no team has called in more than two weeks.

Glenallen Hill broke out a new shipment of bats and promptly borrowed a small scale from Edgar Martinez and began weighing each one. Hill uses a 32-ounce bat, and only four of the dozen shipped to him weighed 32 ounces. The others he marked with a plus or minus and stowed in his locker. “You think they’d all weigh the same but they never do,” Martinez said. “I’ve had bats off by as much as an ounce, and when you’re swinging, you feel the difference.”

Hill, if he plays left field this season, will be the 53rd player to man that position since 1989.