McIlvaine Faced With a New Set of Weaknesses

Gee, I hate to see Robbie Alomar go.

And, gee, I hate to see Joe Carter go.

But I like it. I like Joe McIlvaine’s first major trade as the Padres’ general manager.

Major?

Trading Robbie Alomar and Joe Carter to Toronto for Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez is major as in off the scale. This is a star-spangled stunner.

Trader Jack, meet Trader Joe. These McGuys can McWheel and deal.

Few trades of this magnitude are made in these days of free agents and no-trade clauses. One of the bigger trades of the 1989-90 offseason was the Dec. 6 deal which brought Carter to the Padres and sent an unproven catcher, Sandy Alomar Jr., to the Cleveland Indians. That Alomar, Robbie’s brother, magnified the impact of that trade by becoming the American League rookie of the year.

This trade, Wednesday afternoon’s Windy City Whopper, involved four proven athletes. This one, the trade itself, gets exclamation points rather than question marks.

OK, maybe one question.

Who got the best of it?

I have to score it even.

You trade big sticks who can bust it to the tune of 30 home runs and 100 RBI a season, Carter for McGriff, and middle infielders who can play some defense and hit better than most middle infielders hit, Alomar for Fernandez.

The first impulse was that giving up Alomar, at 22, was a little much. However, the psychological impact of the Padre manager, Greg Riddoch, having fired Alomar’s father, third base coach Sandy, might have been a factor. There’s also the fact that the Padres really wanted Alomar to play shortstop and he didn’t really want to play shortstop.

So what they do is trade for Fernandez, a mere 28 and a proven shortstop, and open second base for Bip Roberts, who is much more adept and adapted at that position.

Consequently, the Padres came out of Wednesday in much better shape at second and short than they went into it, assuming they do not turn around and deal Roberts. That, at this point, would be risky business.

And McGriff’s arrival solves The Jack Clark Problem at first base. When Clark gets his “second-look” free agency, don’t give him another look. Let him go. McGriff, 27, will be just fine at first base.

Now, though this deal itself is not at all questionable, it does raise questions elsewhere in the lineup.

Switching Roberts to his comfort zone at second base creates considerable discomfort at third base, where there is neither an incumbent nor an heir to the throne. The same applies to left field, which Carter vacates, having been in trades involving both Alomar brothers in the span of exactly 365 days.

What the Padres did was make a blockbuster trade that moved their weaknesses around.

The bottom line is that this deal cannot be the bottom line if this team is going to move into contention in the National League West.

It does not negate the fact that San Francisco has picked up Willie McGee, Dave Righetti and Bud Black and the Dodgers have picked up Darryl Strawberry and Kevin Gross and Atlanta has picked up Terry Pendleton. The Padres had been ominously quiet in the face of all this activity.

Until Wednesday.

What they cannot do is think that shaking the rafters with such a trade will move them any further from the basement than they previously have been.

This trade has to be a comma rather than a period. Something has to follow.

Third base, left field and center field are vacant. And I don’t see think the answer lies in further trades. The Padres are not stacked at any one position, such as they were a year ago when they had a catcher to “give” or Wednesday when they could deal Alomar and fill with Roberts.

Unless I’m getting a wrong read on this roster, filling one opening will create another.

The answer lies in following their NL West brethren into the free-agent market. It will cost bucks, but didn’t the hike in ticket prices come with the stipulation that it costs money to build a contender?

Fine. Spend it.

Third baseman Jim Presley and outfielder Tom Brunansky are both out there on the market. Those guys must be pursued. Get them both and you could play Ronnie Lott in center field and let him chase everything down.

Presley and/or Brunansky would also fill another void. The departure of Carter and the imminent departure of Clark makes the Padres a bit vulnerable to left-handed pitching, what with both McGriff and Tony Gwynn batting from that side of the plate. The Padres need a right-handed “force” in the batting order.

There you have it, what they have done (open some eyes) and what they have to do (open their wallets).