Santiago Wants No Talks After Loss in Arbitration

Padre catcher Benito Santiago lost his arbitration case Friday and now says he won’t negotiate further with the team on a multi-year contract.

Santiago was awarded $1.65 million by arbitrator Rolf Valton after a hearing in Los Angeles. The All-Star catcher was seeking $2.5 million.

Padre General Manager Joe McIlvaine said he is still interested in talking with Santiago’s agent, Scott Boras, about a multi-year deal, but Santiago said he will become a free agent when he is eligible after the 1992 season.

“McIlvaine said he hopes we’ll keep talking and work something out,” Santiago said. “I say forget it. I just want to go to free agency.

“You’re telling me a guy who wins a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger and was voted to the All-Star game by the fans deserves the kind of raise they gave me? That’s crazy.”

Santiago and the Padres are about $6 million apart in their negotiations for a multi-year contract, sources said. Santiago is seeking a four-year deal worth $17 million, the Padres are offering four years at about $11 million.

“No way I’ll take $11 million over four years,” Santiago said. “I don’t know what San Diego’s thinking about. I didn’t want this thing to go to arbitration. I didn’t want to go to war over it. I don’t complain about money. I’m talking about respect.”

McIlvaine plans to make further efforts to sign Santiago to a multi-year deal but says the Padres and Boras never have been close to a deal. Asked if that was likely to change, McIlvaine said: “I have no idea. It’s a two-way street. I think they have to reassess a little and see where they’re coming from. . . . I think we’ve been fair to him.”

McIlvaine said Santiago’s reaction is normal for a player who has lost an arbitration.

“When you lose something you’re a little hurt,” he said. “He’s just going to have to recover and regroup and go out and have a productive year. It’s up to him as a professional to suck it up and go on. You have to do that.”

Boras said the inexperience of the arbitrator figured heavily in the decision favoring the Padres. Ten minutes into the first hearing session Wednesday, Boras said Valton asked Santiago if he was right- or left-handed. At that point, he wasn’t optimistic about his client’s chances for success.

“It’s very frustrating for a player to play for four years and go into an arbitration and have someone who is going to determine your fate ask if you’re right-handed or left-handed,” Boras said. “I absolutely knew the minute it was asked that we’d lose. I just told Benny after the case: ‘This gentleman asked me a lot of questions, and it’s obvious he’s not apprised of major league baseball.’ ”

A year ago, Santiago was a winner at arbitration, receiving $1.25 million, the biggest award in Padre history. The Padres had offered $750,000. Boras said last year’s arbitrator, Tom Roberts, was experienced at hearing baseball cases and understood the complexities of the case.

So Santiago became $500,000 richer through the system last year. This year, it cost him $850,000, though even in defeat he received a raise of $400,000.

“I lost one million dollars in one night, but what are you going to do?” Santiago said. “Don’t worry, I’ll make up for it. I’ll make it up in free agency.

“I’m not going to change on this. I try to make it easy for them and they try to make it tough. Now we’ll take them to free agency. That’s it. They’re completely wrong. If they think I deserve that, they’re crazy.”

Santiago, who will be 26 next month, missed 52 games last season after fracturing his left forearm on June 3. He finished the season with a .270 batting average, 11 home runs and 53 RBIs.

After recovering from his injury, Santiago hit only .217, which he said the Padres used against him in the arbitration. Santiago has yet to equal his statistics from his rookie season in 1987, when he hit .300 with 18 home runs and 79 RBIs.

Despite the ruling, Santiago said it won’t dampen his enthusiasm for the upcoming season.

“It doesn’t mean I have to put my head down,” he said. “I feel I’ve been the best catcher in baseball the last four years, and I’m going to keep proving it until I become a free agent.

“The people here are taking a big chance. They’re taking a big, big chance, and they just might lose.”

Times staff writer Bob Nightengale contributed to this story.