Padres Get McIlvaine, Sources Say

Joe McIlvaine will be named the Padres’ vice president of baseball operations, sources within the San Diego organization said Sunday, and he will sign what is believed to be a five-year contract that will pay him an estimated $1.6 million.

An announcement could be made a soon as today, one highly placed club source said.

McIlvaine, who is expected to begin working for the Padres immediately, resigned Friday from the same position with the New York Mets, sources said. The announcement was delayed because of the Mets’ involvement in the pennant race, which ended Sunday when they were eliminated by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

McIlvaine refused comment Sunday, as did Tom Werner, the Padres’ chairman.

The hire is considered a coup for the Padres’ new ownership group, headed by Werner. He had previously been denied permission to interview general managers Andy MacPhail of the Minnesota Twins and David Dombrowski of the Montreal Expos.

McIlvaine, 42, long has been considered a top general manager candidate, but since turning down an offer to take that job for the Cleveland Indians in 1985, he has discouraged interest.

He since has grown weary of the New York lifestyle and impatient with the media’s constant criticism. McIlvaine, who attended St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia, was particularly incensed, friends said, over a recent column in a New York newspaper that said: “Here’s a guy who gave up God for baseball.”

McIlvaine was contacted by the Padres in August, sources said, but he was unwilling to be interviewed because Jack McKeon was still the team’s vice president of baseball operations.

Still, his interest was aroused. He met privately with Padre Manager Greg Riddoch the night of Aug. 20 and had a 45-minute conversation before a game at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium with Padre outfielder Shawn Abner, whom he selected first in the 1984 draft.

“I remember talking with him one night, and he was asking a lot of questions about San Diego,” Abner said. “He was saying what a great place this was and what a beautiful area it would be to live.”

“Then he said, ‘You know, you’d have to be crazy to turn down a chance to work in a place like this.’

“I thought that was kind of funny for him to say at the time, but now, it makes sense.”

McIlvaine also began asking questions of at least two Padre officials during their two-game series Aug. 28-29 in New York. Werner, perhaps not coincidentally, also met the team in New York.

Still, when the hiring process began, McIlvaine was not on the list, one Padre owner said Sunday, because of his refusal to be interviewed.

“Joe had real trouble talking with us,” said the owner, who requested anonymity, “because Jack was still with us. I think he felt funny talking to us when we already had a general manager.”

The Padres instead secretly began interviewing other candidates, five in all, but still held out hope that McIlvaine would be willing to talk. Werner telephoned McIlvaine about 2 1/2 weeks ago, according to the owner, and told him of the decision to fire McKeon.