Padres Obligated to Import Talent, Not Deal It Away

That silence you hear is . . .

A. San Diego State bragging about its defense.

B. Smokers applauding the new ban in the stadium seating areas.

C. The Padres negotiating with free agents.

D. All of the above.

“D” is the correct answer, but what I really hate to not hear is the Padres negotiating with a fellow like Danny Tartabull. They are very quietly being quiet.

Too bad.

This is a winter of golden opportunity for the no longer quite-so-new ownership collective to make its first and biggest impact on the fortunes of this club. The problem seems to be that it would have to spend a fortune to do it.

The Padres had a nice season in 1991. They figured to finish fifth, but they came in third. They finished six games above .500, nine games behind the second-place Dodgers and nine games ahead of the fourth-place Giants.

What happens this off-season will determine which direction they go in 1992.

And something must happen.

Why?

Something must happen because this is essentially a veteran club. It does not have youngsters such as Dave Justice and Steve Avery poised to step up and make a difference. What you see from what the Padres have is what you are going to get. It would take three or four players having career years to move up with what is already on the roster.

Consequently, the Padres must add to the current roster to step into the ranks of the contenders.

With this assessment, I come to what appears to be the state of mind in the Padres’ hierarchy. The notion seems to exist that they cannot add without subtracting. You spend bodies to get bodies.

This philosophy manifested itself in the winter of 1990-91, when the Padres “spent” Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter to acquire Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff. In so doing, they plugged two holes and opened two others. They played what might be called Musical Weaknesses, and it was not a very sweet song.

This also might be called The Blue Light Special approach to running a baseball team. It is the cheap way to go. Fernandez and McGriff, to be sure, are very well compensated for their services, but so were the guys they replaced. For the club, it was a fiscal push.

For this reason, I will go on record as saying I oppose a trade with Cincinnati for Eric Davis before it is even made . . . and it probably will happen in the next few days.

I oppose this trade because it apparently will cause the Padres to forget about negotiating with free agent Danny Tartabull. If they would trade for Davis and continue to pursue Tartabull, then it would make sense.

But this trade route is the cheap route.

You give up folks such as Bip Roberts, Jose Melendez and Thomas Howard to get Davis and pitcher Tim Layana. It does not cost money. It is bodies for bodies. Forget that Davis is making $3.1 million. That is not relevant. What is relevant is that the Padres do not seem to think they can afford both Davis and Tartabull.

Fine. Forget Davis.

Spend money. Don’t spend bodies.

Go after Danny Tartabull.

Tartabull surely will surely demand (and get) more than the $3.1 million Davis would be paid. However, Tartabull is coming off a year in which he hit .316 with 31 home runs and 100 runs batted in. Davis, injury plagued, played in only 89 games and batted .235 with 11 home runs and 33 runs batted in. You might say injuries caused 1991 to be an aberration for Davis, but he has missed 24% of the games in his six-year career because of injuries.

The Padres get Danny Tartabull and he costs a bit more than Eric Davis, but they understand that Davis’ contract expires after the 1992 season. And they don’t know, given Davis’ history, how much they would get of that one season. Tartabull would be signed for maybe four years.

Even if the Padres insist on pinching pennies, which thus far seems to be this ownership’s style, they have to know Tartabull would give them a higher return for their investment.

Meanwhile, choosing Tartabull over Davis would leave Roberts, Melendez and Howard in the hands of the Padres. They could do with them as they please.

They could play them.

They could trade them.

They could trade them for Eric Davis.

But Danny Tartabull should come first. Even if he costs more money.

Unfortunately, I’m not hearing anything about that happening.