Stillwell Visits San Diego, But Not to Sign with Padres
Free agent infielder Kurt Stillwell arrived Thursday in San Diego, but unfortunately for the Padres, the purpose of the visit is to attend his brother’s wedding, not solve their second-base void.
Scott Boras, Stillwell’s agent, continued negotiations Thursday with an unknown team, and are hopeful of reaching an agreement today.
“We’re getting things ironed out,” Boras said. “I know they’re serious, and we’re serious. Unfortunately, the Padres just can’t give us what we want.”
The Padres instead will go to spring training with Craig Shipley, Paul Faries and Mark Gardner as candidates at second base. They told agent Richie Bry that they would be interested in free agent infielder Scott Fletcher only as a non-roster invitee to their spring-training camp.
“We’ll see what happens,” Bry said, “but obviously we’d like to go to a team who’ll put him on the 40-man roster.”
In other news, the Padres learned their arbitration hearing schedule for their five eligible players: outfielder Darrin Jackson (Feb. 3), catcher Benito Santiago (Feb. 4), pitcher Greg Maddux (Feb. 5) and catcher Dann Bilardello (Feb. 7) in Los Angeles; and pitcher Greg Harris on Feb. 14 in Chicago.
Joe McIlvaine, Padre general manager, said he has negotiated with all of them except Santiago.
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