Padres Won’t Offer Garvey a Contract

appears that Steve Garvey has played his last game with the Padres and instead will play his 18th and final major league season with another team.

Thursday afternoon, Padre President Chub Feeney said he has informed Garvey--whose five-year contract, which pays him $1.45 million per year, expires Oct. 4--that he would not be offered a 1988 contract. Garvey responded that he would no longer consider playing for the Padres as an option.

“We will be happy to bring him to spring training to see if he can make the team, but we can give him no contract,” Feeney said.

Garvey was out of town on business, but he issued a statement saying, “Obviously, Chub is doing what is in the best interest of the ballclub, but I’ve got to do what’s best for myself. I’ve got to pursue the options best for me. At the present time, it doesn’t look like those options include the San Diego Padres.”

Feeney, who met with Garvey Monday, said he has given the 38-year-old first baseman four options and is waiting for a response. The choices:

--Retire and allow the Padres to hold a day in his honor.

--Show up in Yuma, Ariz., next spring like other “walk-ons” who are just trying to make the team.

--Declare himself a free agent.

--Be released.

Garvey said he hasn’t yet made up his mind, but a source close to Garvey said Garvey wants to play one more season and likely will opt to be released so he can join another team as soon as possible.

The only way he could return to the Padres would be if no other team signed him. Even then, under baseball rules, if he has been released, he can’t join the Padres until 60 days after the start of the 1988 season. If he declares himself a free agent, he can’t rejoin them until May 1.

And according to Feeney, Garvey is not assured a job even if he comes to spring training.

“We told him that John Kruk is our first baseman, and that he would have to fill another role,” Feeney said.

Garvey led the Padres to their closest brush with a world championship, helping them reach the 1984 World Series. It was Garvey who hit the most memorable home run in club history, a two-run ninth-inning shot off Chicago’s Lee Smith in Game 4 of the National League playoffs that to give them a 7-5 win.

It was Garvey who set a major league record in 1984 for playing in 159 games at first base without an error. It was Garvey who set a National League record in 1983 when he played in his 1,118th consecutive game, a streak that would end at 1,207. The only players ahead of him are Lou Gehrig (2,130 games) and Everett Scott (1,307).

In his first four years here, he averaged .278 with 15 homers and 77 RBIs. He led the club in personal appearances and became as valuable a marketing tool as he was a first baseman.

But Garvey has been missing from this team since May 30, when he was disabled with a torn biceps tendon near his left shoulder that required surgery. This season, Garvey has been paid for playing in 27 games, hitting .211 with a homer and 9 RBIs.

This salary figure is part of the reason the Padres won’t re-sign him. Baseball’s Basic Agreement states they can cut his pay only 20%.

“That still gives you a big number,” Feeney said. “And he won’t have played in about a year.”

Feeney is uncertain, considering Garvey’s injury and age, whether the first baseman can still play, anyway.

“I’ve got to see him play,” Feeney said. “He said he thought he was fine, but I don’t think he’s done very much (rehabilitation). I think he’s done some exercise, but he’s also got a lot of other projects. We need to see him play.”

Garvey was away on one of those projects Thursday and issued only the statement through John Boggs, vice president of Garvey Marketing Group. But when Garvey is in San Diego, he works out daily with Padre doctors at Scripps Clinic. Last month, he reported an improved range of motion and confidence that he could begin swinging a bat by November.

Feeney said those assurances aren’t enough. “Only a few of the great ones have bowed out like a Joe DiMaggio or a Stan Musial, just retired,” Feeney said. “I know Steve has a lot of confidence, and perhaps he can still play. But I’d just like to see it first.”