Bevacqua Will Go to Camp With Padres

Kurt Bevacqua decided Tuesday afternoon to go to spring training with the Padres as a non-roster player, but team general manager Jack McKeon said he told Bevacqua earlier in the day:

“Kurt, nothing has changed from a month ago. Go to spring training. Fine. But at the end of spring training, you go home. Because someone else is going to make that club. You’re not. You can’t.”

So free agency has struck (out) again.

Bevacqua, age 38, was allegedly free after the 1985 season. The Padres offered him a chance to rejoin the team through arbitration, but he turned them down to test the market. But his market crashed. None of the teams he wanted to play for wanted him, and under the new collective bargaining agreement, he was not allowed to sign again with the Padres until May 1.

Opening day is April 7.

So Bevacqua doesn’t much like this new collective bargaining agreement.

“I think I’ll file suit against the player’s association (which instituted the May 1 rule),” he said. “I’ll know for sure next week.”

Irregardless, does it make sense for him to attend a camp he cannot survive?

He says so.

Because he can show off in front of other teams and maybe get a contract elsewhere, though he said he has already turned down offers from some Eastern teams he preferred not to name.

“I’ve had other offers, but I didn’t think they were worth packing up and going to Florida to spring training for and then going wherever the hell the team’s gonna be and being away from home for seven months,” he said. “It’s just not worth it to me anymore. If the situation came along with the Dodgers or Angels or something like that, I’d consider that.”

Because he can show off to the Padres enough that maybe they’ll consider giving him a contract on May 1.

McKeon did tell Bevacqua Tuesday: “If an emergency comes up somewhere after May 1st and you haven’t signed with anybody, then, you know, it might be a different story. It might be. But like I said, I am not going to guarantee anything. I can’t. It’s a rule.”