Angels sign Trout to record contract

Mike Trout has his first seven-figure contract. Up ahead is what figures to be a nine-figure deal.

“It feels good,” Trout said Wednesday after agreeing to a $1 million, one-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels.

The salary is the highest for a one-year major league contract for a player not yet eligible for arbitration who wasn’t coming to the big leagues from Japan or Cuba or wasn’t required to have a larger amount because of the maximum cut rule. Ryan Howard earned $900,000 with Philadelphia in 2007 and Albert Pujols with St. Louis in 2003.

Homework for Hart

Josh Hart, selected 37th overall in last June’s amateur draft, was visiting Baltimore’s major league spring training camp on Monday when manager Buck Showalter introduced him to Hall of Famer Frank Robinson. Showalter asked Hart if he knew who Robinson was. The 19-year-old did not.

“I said, ‘OK, tomorrow by this time I want a page on Frank Robinson,”’ Showalter explained. “I said, ‘You go home, you research it and you come back tomorrow and have it on my desk.”’

League slams vetoed law

Major League Baseball issued a statement criticizing legislation in Arizona that Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a few hours later.

Senate Bill 1062 set off a national debate over gay rights, religion and discrimination and subjected the state to criticism from major corporations and political leaders from both parties.

Before Brewer vetoed the bill Wednesday, the baseball commissioner’s office said: “As the sport of Jackie Robinson, Major League Baseball and its 30 clubs stand united behind the principles of respect, inclusion and acceptance. Those values are fundamental to our game’s diverse players, employees and fans. We welcome individuals of different sexual orientations, races, religions, genders and national origins.”

Pavano calls it quits

Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons.

The 38-year-old right-hander didn’t pitch after June 1 in 2012 because of a strained right shoulder. His spleen was removed in January 2013 after he was injured when he fell in the snow at his home in Vermont.

Clearing the bases

Miami Marlins pitcher Henderson Alvarez will miss his first scheduled start of spring training because of an infection in his right shin … Mets left-hander Jon Niese is being sent back to New York for an MRI on his ailing pitching shoulder … Los Angeles Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton will be sidelined for at least two weeks because of a strained calf muscle.