McIlvaine Makes It Official : Baseball: Mets No. 2 man becomes Padre vice president/baseball operations.

Joe McIlvaine completed the jump from the near-miss New York Mets to the never-do-well Padres Tuesday when he was named vice president/baseball operations.

McIlvaine, 42, will have the same title he had in New York, but with more authority. He will be the Padres’ No. 1 baseball man, whereas he was No. 2 to general manager Frank Cashen with the Mets.

Tom Werner, the Padres’ managing general partner, said McIlvaine will report directly to him, as will club president Dick Freeman.

McIlvaine would not comment on the size or duration of his contract, which was previously reported at $1.6 million over five years.

In making this move, McIlvaine takes over a team which went from preseason favorite to win the National League West to midseason mystery to late-season shambles.

Winning ugly has become a popular expression of late, but the Padres have epitomized losing ugly. Along the way, Jack McKeon lost both his managerial job (July 11) and vice president/baseball operations job (Sept. 21). Greg Riddoch replaced him as manager.

There will be rumors about others from the Met organization following McIlvaine to San Diego, but it would not appear that Darryl Strawberry, perhaps this year’s most attractive free agent, will be among them.

Strawberry has taken note of what has transpired in San Diego this summer.

When asked by Newsday about the possibility of signing with the Padres, Strawberry said, “I look at a lot of the stuff that goes on over there. That team has a lot of talent, but they’re not winners.”

They have not been in 1990.

McIlvaine takes over a team with a few problems and, to paraphrase Strawberry, a whole lot of stuff going on.

* The slugging first baseman has ripped a) ownership, b) the right fielder, c) umpiring and d) the right fielder’s wife. McIlvaine also might note that this oft-injured player has deemed a one-year offer of $2.5 million to be an insult.

* The right fielder, weary of either perceived or real animosity in the clubhouse, cleared out his locker and left the stadium early so as not to encounter his teammates after suffering a season-ending injury in late September.

* The winningest pitcher in the club’s history has been mopping up and moping most of the season and wants out.

* There is no center fielder.

* There is no third baseman.

* The shortstop is nearing the end of his career.

* There are no minor league prospects who can be expected to contribute significantly in the near future.

These are some of the things McIlvaine will discover in his “in” basket when he reports for work.

However, he is a veteran baseball man who deserves at least part of the credit for the success the Mets have enjoyed in his decade in the New York front office. Previously, he had scouted for Baltimore, California and Milwaukee.

And this is his first opportunity to be the boss.

“Why leave New York to come here?” he asked. “Ownership is a very, very important thing, but the main thing is that I have a chance to run a ball club the way I want to run it. It’s an opportunity to do what’s necessary to build a winner.”

With this ball club, there is considerable question as to exactly what is necessary to build a winner.

McIlvaine was not inclined to comment on what has happened in 1990 or what has to happen to change things in 1991.

“This is a good ball club that performed under its capability level,” he said. “We heard the same thing in New York. I’m going to get in there and talk to the manager and the players. Over the winter, I’ll do a lot of talking with the players, manager and coaches and try to formulate my own opinion.”

For now, then, he had no opinion on the controversies which embittered and ultimately buried this club.

“I’m going to wipe the slate clean,” he said. “I’m the new man in town. Anything that’s happened in the past I have no control over.”

The most enduring problem, of course, was the schism between Jack Clark and Tony Gwynn. This one surfaced in late May and festered throughout the season.

“I have no inside information on that,” McIlvaine said. “Tom (Werner) and I haven’t talked about that too much. What I’d like to do is talk with Tony and the other principals involved. I’m going up (to Los Angeles) tomorrow. Obviously, Tony won’t be there, but I’ll be here until the end of the week.”

Those are the short-range problems, which cannot really wait until spring training to be addressed. As for the long range, consider that McIlvaine’s background is in scouting and player development.

“New York was reluctant to get into free agency,” he said. “We’ll evaluate that on a case-by-case basis, but the best solution is to have a ready player in the farm system. What you strive for is to have a ready replacement at all levels. Unfortunately, not too many organizations are in that position.”

The Padres are not among those in that position.

McIlvaine was apparently the man the Padres’ ownership group wanted all along.

“Joe,” said Werner, “is a rare combination of talent, experience and stick-to-itiveness. He has a fire in his belly. He’s motivated to do whatever is possible to give the fans a championship ball club.”

However, McIlvaine could not be motivated to talk to the Padres as long as McKeon occupied the vice president/baseball operations position. After McKeon was fired, McIlvaine flew to Los Angeles for interviews early last week. The final loose ends were tied earlier Tuesday, before a 2 p.m. media conference.