Hurst Mulling Offers From Padres, Others

If nothing else, the Padres at least can claim they are making Boston free agent pitcher Bruce Hurst think.

After saying he hoped to decide on next year’s place of employment by the end of this week, Hurst now will delay that decision until early next week. This morning he will fly from Boston to his home in St. George, Utah, to visit his parents and appear in the annual Rotary Bowl parade. He also will spend time mulling over his final choices, which include the Padres, Red Sox and Angels.

While the Angels’ undisclosed bid Wednesday made them the fourth club to enter the Hurst chase--St. Louis has expressed interest but made no official offer--sources say Hurst remains firm on having narrowed his choices to the Padres and the Red Sox. And Hurst’s agent, Nick Lampros, said that while the Angels offer was “competitive,” Hurst was not going to spend the weekend thinking about money.

“It’s not a matter a money, it’s a matter of him taking his time and going through all the decision processes,” Lampros said Wednesday. “We will to have something for you next week, probably.”

The Padres’ offer to Hurst is for 3 years and $4.7 million; the Red Sox have offered 3 years and $4.8 million.

The fact that he would leave Boston to make his decision works in the Padres’ favor, figured one Padre source, who guessed that Hurst would not be leaving Boston to make a final decision if he were set on staying in Boston.

Lampros admitted there might not be a weekend of thought needed if the final decision were going to be an easy one, such as remaining with the Red Sox.

“Bruce is operating under very difficult conditions, facing the possibility of leaving an organization in which he grew up and has all his friends and contacts,” Lampros said. “This is a very difficult thing.”

Before the thus-far-calm Padre front office thinks about celebrating, at least one Padre player warned Wednesday that the more a player thinks about such a move, the harder it is to make it.

“Anytime you have to fight with a home club over a guy, it’s a tough fight,” said Tony Gwynn, who brought up the memory of the Padres’ unsuccessful bid for Chicago Cub pitcher Rick Sutcliffe in the winter of 1984.

“It’s like what happened with Sutcliffe, he came here and talked nice to the media and said what a great place this was . . . and then went back and signed with Chicago again. Unless a guy really wants to leave, he might think it’s hard to pick up and start over again with somebody new.

“I’ll do anything to help get him (Hurst) to sign with us, but I know it’s got to be real tough for him right now.”

. The Padres will get some good news from Gwynn this week. Friday, 2 months after he last swung a bat at a baseball, Gwynn will begin swinging again, testing his troublesome left index finger. A couple of days ago, he cheated and took a few swings at a whiffle ball. He said, “It felt great.”