Padres, Blue Jays Trade All-Stars : Baseball: Winter meetings end with blockbuster in which San Diego sends Carter, Alomar to Toronto for McGriff, Fernandez.

He doesn’t smoke cigars and no one calls him “Trader,” but General Manager Joe McIlvaine is continuing the San Diego Padres’ tradition of making the annual winter baseball meetings their own little party.

In what is hailed as one of the biggest trades in the history of the meetings, the Padres traded All-Star second baseman Roberto Alomar and left fielder Joe Carter to the Toronto Blue Jays Wednesday for three-time All-Star shortstop Tony Fernandez and first baseman Fred McGriff.

The trade was so stunning in its impact that when the names were announced, the audience of reporters and television crews gasped.

The Blue Jays have never made a bigger transaction. Pat Gillick, Toronto’s general manager, had gone five years without making a trade. And the Blue Jays hadn’t made a deal at the winter meetings in seven years.

“You know, when Pat brought the idea back to us,” said Gordon Lakey, Blue Jay scout, “there was just total disbelief. These players have been such an integral part of our team, we didn’t think about trading them. But the longer we thought about it, the more it made sense.”

And in San Diego, since Jack McKeon’s firing 10 weeks ago, McIlvaine’s biggest trade had been the acquisition of Oscar Azocar of the New York Yankees.

“I’ll tell you what,” McIlvaine said, “this one was so big that when we first brought up the names to each other, we both laughed. It was like it was too big. Nobody does these kinds of things.”

And McIlvaine, in McKeon’s tradition, is just getting started. He assured everyone that he will be the last general manager to leave these meetings, dropping off his suite number to any team that cares to talk.

The Padres are still engrossed in trade discussions with the Kansas City Royals in an attempt to acquire right fielder Danny Tartabull. They are also talking to the Boston Red Sox about right-handed reliever Wes Gardner, to the Baltimore Orioles about third baseman Craig Worthington and to the Chicago White Sox about left fielder Ivan Calderon.

But now, with the trade, there’s one decision the Padres won’t have to await. Jack Clark, the Padres’ first baseman who is expected to be declared a new-look free agent, no longer is needed.

Clark, who was offered a one-year, $2.5-million contract by the Padres, will hit the prosperous free-agent trail the moment the decision is announced.

“It finalizes the Jack Clark issue,” said Tom Reich, his agent, “although it was pretty much resolved anyway. We’ll be going quietly. He just wants to go somewhere (that) he can contribute heavily and win a championship. He has unfinished business. He won two pennants in St. Louis, and now he wants that ring. . . .

“I applaud Joe McIlvaine for making one of the most aggressive trades in recent memories. It’s a gutsy move. They gave up a lot and got a lot.

“A lot of people have been writing the Padres off. Mark Twain would be proud of what happened today.”

The Blue Jays said they probably will not bid for Clark.

Actually, the trade was a move that caught the Padres by surprise, as well. They did not even sit down with the Blue Jays for their first talks until 3 p.m. Tuesday.

McIlvaine entered the meeting knowing that Toronto was vastly interested in Carter. In fact, during the recent general managers’ meetings, Gillick asked McIlvaine if he would be interested in trading Carter.

“But he told me, ‘No,’ ” Gillick said.

One month later, with the knowledge of the pending new-look free agency, the Padres needed a first baseman in the event of Clark’s departure. They asked for McGriff, 27, who hit .300 with 35 home runs and 88 runs batted in last season, and has 125 homers and a .278 batting average in his four-year career.

“We had a natural match there,” McIlvaine said, “and really, we could have left it, one for one.”

But the Padres, believing that Garry Templeton, 34, no longer is capable of being an everyday shortstop, decided to go ahead and ask about the availability of Fernandez, a four-time Gold Glove winner with a .289 career batting average. They were shocked by the answer.

“I didn’t know they would move him,” McIlvaine said, “but it was going to take Alomar.”

This was the the riskiest aspect about the entire proposition. Alomar is 22 and already is considered by scouts as one of the best in the game.

“It takes quality to get quality, and there’s no way we were getting Fernandez without giving him up,” McIlvaine said.

So, there it was. The names were spoken. Two for two, no other names needed.

“That’s when we just looked at each other and laughed,” McIlvaine said. “I don’t think either of us could believe it.”

They also couldn’t believe the simplicity of the trade. It was so overwhelming to them, Gillick said, they convinced one another to sleep on it.

“That didn’t do a whole lot of good,” McIlvaine said. “I didn’t get much sleep at all.”

McIlvaine awoke, telephoned Gillick in the morning, agreed that they still wanted to complete the deal, met again at 2 p.m., and an hour later, they announced it.

The trade was made so quickly that none of the four players was contacted. Two weren’t home. And two received messages on their answering machines.

Alomar learned of the trade from his agent, Scott Boras, who finally was able to reach him about 30 minutes after the announcement.

“He told me, ‘Sit down, relax, I’m going to tell you a story,’ ” Alomar said. “I sat down, and the first words I hear are, ‘You’re traded.’

“I really didn’t know what to think. I can’t say I’m sad or disappointed or happy or anything. I’m just confused, really.”

Carter learned of the trade from a shoeshine employee after coming off a golf course in Orlando, Fla. According to Jim Turner, his agent, “he was shocked.”

McGriff was informed of the trade by his mother in Tampa, Fla. He didn’t really have a reaction, said Eliza McGriff, until he found out the site of the Padres’ spring training camp, Yuma, Ariz.

Fernandez owns a new home in Boca Raton, Fla., and could not be reached for comment.

So, what about the trade? Does it favor the Blue Jays, who now will move John Olerud to first base, Manny Lee to shortstop and Carter to right field. Or the Padres, who now have filled two holes but left two others wide open?

What does Trader Jack think?

“Let’s just say we had a good nucleus that was going to get better,” McKeon said. “The Padres traded away a guy who might be in the Hall of Fame and another who drives in 100 runs a year.

Who got the better end of the deal?

“No comment.”