Third Baseman Graig Nettles, 41, Signs One-Year Contract With Padres

Graig Nettles, the Padres’ 41-year-old third baseman, signed a new contract with the club and will return for an 18th major league season, team officials said Tuesday.

The one-year deal reportedly was worth about $800,000.

Nettles, obtained by San Diego in a March, 1984 trade with the New York Yankees, has a lifetime batting average of .251 with 363 career home runs and 1,212 RBI.

A former Gold Glove winner, Nettles is best known for the sparkling defensive plays he made against the Dodgers in helping the Yankees defeat Los Angeles in the 1978 World Series.

Nettles played in 137 games for San Diego this season, the most since 1979, when he appeared in 145 with the Yankees. He finished the 1985 season batting .261 with 15 home runs and 61 RBIs and was ranked second on the club in walks with 72.

He made his sixth All-Star appearance in July and collected his 2,000th career hit on May 19 in Montreal with a single off Steve Rogers.

The Padres are the fourth team Nettles has played for in his career. He played with Minnesota, Cleveland and the Yankees before joining the Padres in exchange for left-hander Dennis Rasmussen.

“Graig has given us good play at third base and has been a consistent run producer,” Padre General Manager Jack McKeon said. “We expect him to continue with the same consistency in 1986.”

The contract agreement was reached after about two months of negotiations between McKeon and Nettles’ agent, Jerry Kapstein, team spokesman Mike Swanson said.