California Angels owner Gene Autry reportedly offered Robin Yount a contract that would make the Milwaukee Brewers free agent centerfielder the highest paid player in baseball.
The total worth of the package could be in excess of the offer left-handed pitcher Mark Langston recently accepted from Autry. Langston reportedly became baseball's richest player when he received a five-year, $16 million contract to join the Angels.Sources familiar with the negotiations revealed Sunday that Autry's offer to Yount, the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1989, will be hard for Yount to refuse, according to a report in Monday's editions of The Milwaukee Sentinel.
The report said a decision could come as soon as today.
Brewer President Allan (Bud) Selig, who has personally been handling contract negotiations with Yount's agent-brother, Larry, said he was unaware of any such offer by the Angels.
"I haven't heard anything about it," Selig said. "That's news to me. Sometimes, rumors fly around at the winter meetings."
Selig was scheduled to arrive Monday in Nashville for baseball's winter meetings. The Sentinel story appeared under a Nashville dateline.
Neither Yount nor his brother were available for comment, but sources in the Brewer organization were quoted as confirming that the Younts are having a cash flow problem, which could be a determining factor in where Yount plays in 1990.
The Younts are in immediate need of cash because much of their money is tied up in Arizona land developments, the report said.
The financial package offered by Autry reportedly would include land in Arizona that is owned by Autry.
Yount, 34, recently filed for free agency for the first time in his 16-year relationship with the Brewers.
Larry Yount said in the early stages of negotiations that money would not be an issue in where his brother decided to play, but some members of the Brewer organization were beginning to have some doubts, the report said.
The Brewers were believed to have offered Yount the going rate, which is $3 million a year for three years.
The Brewers paid Yount a base salary of $1.1 million in 1989, but the complicated, three-year pact included loans that made it worth much more.
Selig, who has maintained a close relationship with the Younts, said he remained optimistic the centerfielder would be back next season.
"I had a conversation with both Robin and Larry Saturday, and it was very congenial, very productive," Selig said. "We'll talk again this week. That's all I know. I still have a good feeling about it."
Yount said near the end of last season that he was unhappy with the team's disappointing record and would take management's commitment to winning into consideration when he decided where to play in 1990.
Brewers General Manager Harry Dalton said recently that Yount has not made any demands for personnel changes.