Padres’ Davis Easily Wins Cy Young Award : Baseball: Left-hander is only the fourth reliever and the third San Diego pitcher to win the honor in the National League.

Mark Davis won the National League Cy Young Award on Tuesday. Now we’ll have to wait to see who wins him.

Davis, the San Diego Padres’ reliever who led the majors with 44 saves, easily beat Mike Scott of the Houston Astros to win the award. Now, Davis has to find a team to play for next season.

He became a free agent on Oct. 31 and his agents say there is only a 10% chance he’ll return to the Padres.

“I definitely will take my family into consideration,” he said of his decision, deflecting questions about money. “A lot of things will go into the decision. But today, I feel this is a happy time for the Padres and myself. . . . and I would like to focus on that.”

The 29-year-old Davis got 19 first-place votes and four seconds for 107 points from a 24-member panel of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America. Scott, the 1986 winner, got four firsts, 14 seconds and three thirds for 65 points.

Davis made $600,000 last season and recently rejected an offer for a three-year contract for about $7 million. He says he’ll consider offers from any team. But he did say, “I’m overjoyed at what I’ve received today and I owe a lot of thanks to the Padres’ organization and the people on the field.”

He specifically thanked Pat Dobson, his pitching coach, and Jack McKeon, the San Diego manager.

“I’d be nuts if wasn’t concerned,” McKeon said of Davis’ free-agent status. “I sure would like to see him pitch for us again, but it’s not my decision, it’s his decision.”

Chicago lawyer Fred Lane is representing the Padres in the negotiations. He was at Jack Murphy Stadium on Tuesday for Davis’ news conference.

“This his day. All I’m here to do is congratulate him,” Lane said.

Did the Cy Young Award raise the Davis’ pricetag, as far as the Padres are concerned?

“It certainly has to be something that’s going to be a part of it,” Lane said.

Davis is only the fourth reliever to win the NL Cy Young, joining Steve Bedrosian (1987), Bruce Sutter (1979) and Mike Marshall (1974). He’s just the third San Diego player to win--Randy Jones (1976) and Gaylord Perry (1978) are the others.

“Relievers have become more a part of baseball and utlilized a little bit more,” Davis said.

He was 4-3 with a 1.85 earned-run average and had 92 strikeouts in 92 2/3 innings. He had a win or a save in 48 of San Diego’s 89 victories. He was dominating throughout the season and finished two short of Dave Righetti’s major-league record for saves and one short of Bruce Sutter’s NL record.

Davis converted 44 of 48 save opportunities and allowed just 13 of 75 inherited runners to score. He saved 12 games from Sept. 1 on and stranded his final 19 inherited runners, allowing just one of his last 29 to score. He finished the year with a streak of 24 2/3 scoreless innings, and gave up just eight hits during the span.

Davis also was dominating at the start, beginning the season with 17 saves in his first 17 opportunities. The streak was broken against Houston on June 6, the start of his only inconsistent period this year. From June 6-24, he blew three saves in six chances.

“When you’re a small child wanting to play baseball, wanting to be a major league player--and that was a dream of mine--this was something where you always felt that, wow, I’d like to be in the World Series, I’d like to make the All-Star team, I’d like to perform well, and obviously, if you’re a pitcher, you want to win the Cy Young Award,” Davis said. “There are other things that you strive for, but this is something that I never really thought I would be fortunate enough to win. It’s very much an honor. I will treasure it always.”

Greg Maddux of the Chicago Cubs was third with three seconds and eight thirds for 17 points. Orel Hershiser of the Dodgers, the 1988 winner, was tied for fourth with one first and two thirds for seven points, along with Joe Magrane of the St. Louis Cardinals, who got one second and four thirds.

Tim Belcher of the Dodgers and Scott Garrelts of the San Francisco Giants were tied for sixth with four points, followed by Rick Reuschel of the Giants with three points and Mike Bielecki and Mitch Williams of the Cubs with one point each.

Scott, while not winning the award, did make some money. He got a $50,000 bonus for finishing second, raising his salary for the year to $1.375 million (including a $25,000 bonus for making the All-Star team).

Scott, in all, made $525,000 in bonuses this year. In April he signed a two-year contract extension that begins in 1990 and called for base salaries of $1.95 million. He pitched 205 innings, triggering a $150,000 bonus for each of the next two years, and the All-Star and Cy Young bonuses are rolled over, making his base salaries $2.175 million for 1990 and 1991.

“Like I told people before, if I had a vote, I would have voted for Mark Davis also,” said Scott, 20-10 with a 3.10 ERA and 172 strikeouts. “I really thought he was the odds-on favorite, but then it gets down to the last couple of days and people are setting up news conferences and coming to your home for interviews, and you think, well, maybe I’ve got a chance.

“Realistically, (you look) at his year and the rest of the relievers, and there is a big gap. You look at my season and the rest of the other starters, and there’s not that big of a gap.”