Gwynn Option Picked Up; Trainer Fired

The Padres, declaring that they want to keep outfielder Tony Gwynn as part of their future, exercised the final option year of his contract Thursday and will pay him $2 million in 1992.

General Manager Joe McIlvaine met with Gwynn last Friday and told him that he will not be traded. He also said that the Padres will keep their promise to talk about the possibility of renegotiating his contract.

“I would have been shocked if they didn’t pick up their extension,” said John Boggs, Gwynn’s agent. “We’ll go out and have at least two years in San Diego, and hopefully in that span, we’ll bring him a winner.

“Tony doesn’t plan on going anywhere in the next two years.”

Gwynn was unavailable for comment.

Gwynn had a $200,000 buyout clause in his contract if the Padres had not exercised the 1992 option by 10 days after the end of the World Series. He also will be paid $2 million in 1991, a $1 million pay hike from 1989 and 1990.

In other news, the Padres fired trainer Dick Dent and officially announced they will allow pitcher Eric Show to seek free agency, paying him a $250,000 buyout.

Dent was considered by the management staff to be the finest trainer in the league. The Padres have had fewer players on the disabled list the past six years than any other NL team.

But sources within the Padre organization said Dent was fired because he had strained relations with several players, including Gwynn.

Dent had no direct comment on Gwynn Thursday but said: “From everything I’m hearing, supposedly I had a poor choice of friend in Jack Clark. What does that mean? Jack Clark was a friend?”

Clark and Gwynn were antagonists in an ongoing clubhouse controversy this season.

“I didn’t know I was so close to Jack Clark,” Dent said. “I didn’t know I was such a good buddy with him. The only time I see Jack Clark is at the game. I might see him at the hotel bar for a beer or something, but that’s about it.”

Dent said he did not want to “burn any bridges.”

“I thought I busted my butt for the ballclub,” he said. “I put in 15 years of what I thought was worthy service. I’m just confused. If I had a deficiency, why wasn’t I sat down and told what my deficiencies were. You know, so I could rectify them? The only guys on the DL this year have broken bones (Clark was the only exception, going on the list with a pulled hamstring). I don’t know what else I could do.”

He added: “I have no plans right now. I’ve done this for 15 years. I can’t turn into a CPA. I’m a baseball trainer.”

Show is the winningest pitcher in club history with 100 victories, but the club elected not to pick up an option that would have paid him from $1.1 million to $1.7 million in 1991.

He had been with the big league club since the last part of the 1981 season and got his 100th career victory by pitching the Padres past the Dodgers in the Oct. 3 season finale. He finished 1990 with a 6-8 record and 5.76 ERA, having spent much of the year in the bullpen.

Padre Manager Greg Riddoch, who made the recommendation for Dent’s firing, is on a fishing trip and was unavailable for comment on any of the moves.

Staff Writer Jim Lindgren in San Diego contributed to this story.