Seven free agents, led by former Texas Rangers first baseman Pete O'Brien, changed teams in yet another financially shocking day at baseball's annual winter meetings.
O'Brien was the biggest winner, as the Seattle Mariners gave him a four-year, $7.6 million guaranteed deal to win a bidding war with Detroit and the Chicago White Sox.Also Thursday:
The Los Angeles Dodgers signed reliever Jim Gott of Provo to a one-year conditional deal that could be worth as much as $1 million.
Pitcher Storm Davis left the world-champion Oakland Athletics for a three-year, $7-million contract with the Kansas City Royals.
Former San Francisco Giants reliever Craig Lefferts received $5.8 million over three years from the San Diego Padres, who ended their effort to sign relief pitcher Mark Davis. The Yankees, Angels and Phillies are still in the bidding for the National League Cy Young Award winner.
To fill the void left by O'Brien, the Cleveland Indians signed Keith Hernandez to a two-year, $3 million deal.
The Detroit Tigers gave center fielder Lloyd Moseby a two-year, $3 million deal.
And the pitching-starved Montreal Expos signed Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd to a one-year, $650,000 deal with incentives that could bring the package to $1.6 million.
The Mariners made O'Brien, 31, their highest-paid player despite his declining offensive production in each of the past three seasons. O'Brien hit .260 with 12 homers and 55 runs batted in for Cleveland in 1989. With O'Brien at first, Alvin Davis will move to designated hitter, and Jeffrey Leonard will return to the outfield.
Gott, 30, saved 34 games for the Pirates in 1988, but pitched only two-thirds of an inning in 1989 because of an elbow injury.
Davis, 28, became the third free agent to leave the Athletics, following Dave Parker (Milwaukee) and Tony Phillips (Detroit). But Royals executive vice president John Schuerholz said depleting the world champions had nothing to do with the signing.
Backed by the Athletics' deep bullpen, Davis was 35-14 in the past two seasons despite an earned-run average of 4.00. He won 19 games in 1989 despite a 4.36 ERA and averaging only 5.5 innings per start.
Davis will join a rotation that also includes Bret Saberhagen, Mark Gubicza and Tom Gordon.
Lefferts, 32, and the Padres came to agreement at 2:30 a.m. Thursday. The Padres were willing to add a third guaranteed year to his contract after talks with Davis ended. Davis is rseeking a five-year guaranteed contract for more money than Langston received ($16 million), and the Padres would offer no more than a four-year deal.
Hernandez, 36, hit .233 with four homers and 19 RBI in 215 at-bats in an injury-marred 1989. He broke his right kneecap May 17 and missed two months. The former Met also missed nine weeks in the 1988 season because of an injured right hamstring.
Moseby's signing filled a similar vacancy for the Tigers, who lost center fielder Gary Pettis to the Texas Rangers. Moseby, 30, hit a career-low .221 with 11 homers and 43 RBI and also struck out far too frequently for a leadoff hitter (101 times). He is projected to hit second in manager Sparky Anderson's order.
The Expos gambled on Boyd, 30, despite the presence of blood clots in his right shoulder that limited him to 71 innings in 1989 and threatened his career.