Sheffield: 1-Year Deal Won’t Do : Padres: Third baseman wants long-term contract, but McIlvaine says the team cannot afford such deals.

All-Star third baseman Gary Sheffield vowed Saturday he would leave the Padres via free agency in 1994 if the Padres don’t change their negotiating stance this winter.

The Padres, according to general manager Joe McIlvaine, are expected to offer Sheffield only a one-year contract for the 1993 season instead of negotiating a long-term deal.

If that’s the case, Sheffield said from his St. Petersburg, Fla., he will terminate all further negotiations once the 1993 season commences.

“If I say something, I mean it,” Sheffield said. “I will not be changing my mind. Once the season starts, that’s it. I don’t talk money during the season.

“I might cry if I have to leave San Diego because they saved my career, but I won’t let that be a factor in my negotiations. The time for the Padres is now.

“It’ll be hard to do, but I’ll leave.”

Sheffield, who chased the triple crown all season before sustaining a broken finger last Sunday, virtually clinched the batting title with his .330 average. The only way he could lose is if Andy Van Slyke of Pittsburgh or Bip Roberts of Cincinnati went six for six today.

Sheffield also hit a career-high 32 homers and drove in a career-high 100 runs, obliterating every record for Padre third basemen.

McIlvaine concedes Sheffield is one of the finest players in the game, but because the Padres are projected to lose about $8.5 million this season, he says they can not afford to sign Sheffield to a long-term contract.

“These people (Padre owners) lost their shirts last year,” McIlvaine said, “and the current economic conditions precludes that. That’s no reflection on Gary, they just are not interested in any long-term contracts right now.”

McIlvaine braced Sheffield for the possible news in a private meeting a few weeks ago, Sheffield said, but he still is bitterly disappointed.

“It makes no sense,” Sheffield said. “If they’re not interested in investing in me for five years, then who are they interested in keeping? I want to be fair, but what this does is make me greedy.

“How can they be fair by just offering me one year?

“It hurts my feelings because I don’t think I deserve that.”

The Padres also have decided that they will not even offer arbitration rights to catcher Benito Santiago at the end of the season, McIlvaine said. By not offering arbitration, the Padres forfeit the two draft picks they would receive as compensation if Santiago rejected an arbitration offer and signed with another team.

McIlvaine said the Padres simply can not afford to take the chance that Santiago might accept. Santiago would be likely to win a $4 million salary in arbitration.

“It’s a $4 million gamble,” McIlvaine said, “and we don’t believe we want to take that risk. If you offer arbitration and he accepted it, he’s a signed player. It’s a financial gamble that we don’t want to take.”

Said Scott Boras, Santiago’s agent: “I really don’t believe they’ll do it, but who knows? I guess from the Padres’ point of view they know there’s a strong likelihood we would take it. Because of Benny’s age, the economic climate and Benny’s love for San Diego, he just might take arbitration if it was offered.”

Although the Padres don’t plan on signing free agent reliever Randy Myers, they will offer him arbitration, McIlvaine said, with the belief that he’ll receive a lucrative contract offer from another team. The Padres are skeptical that Santiago would get such an offer.

Considering the Padres also are hoping to trade veteran starter Bruce Hurst and All-Star shortstop Tony Fernandez in the off-season, Sheffield wonders aloud if perhaps it’s not best for him to leave in two years.

“Money’s not the most important thing to me,” Sheffield said. “It’s about winning. I don’t want to lose all the time. I’ve been on plenty of sixth-place and fourth-place teams; I want to be on a first-place team.

“If they don’t want to sign me, who do they want to sign? We had four guys who had career years, and we still didn’t win. And now they’re going to take away from what we already have?

“That’s not a good feeling.”

The Padre front office, hoping to quell the unrest that news of the budget cuts created, had a 20-minute closed-door meeting with the players Saturday before their game against the Atlanta Braves. Padre President Dick Freeman, who flew into Atlanta for the specific purpose of addressing the team, spoke, along with McIlvaine and Manager Jim Riggleman.

“I talked to them about how difficult it is to plan (for 1993) because there are a lot of uncertainties,” Freeman said. “Included in that is the economy of the area and the city. Attendance was not what it should be in a comparable year, and that was largely because of the economy.

“Our plans for 1993 involves putting a winning team on the field. It’s not viewed as a rebuilding situation.

“We told them not to prejudge every transaction that happens in October.”

Freeman, who last addressed the team at the end of the 1989 season, would not divulge how much the player payroll will be cut. But sources said ownership wants the current $28 million player budget to be slashed to about $20 million.

The Padres will receive about $12 million in December for expansion, but Freeman said that money will be used to pay off a loan and is not included in the $53 million they received in revenue. The Padres borrowed $20 million from a San Diego bank when they purchased the club two years ago.

“This is a real loss, this is real money,” Freeman said. “It’s not a manufactured thing.”

For the Padres, however, there might be no better time than now to sign Sheffield to a long-term deal.

“I want to stay in San Diego more than anything,” Sheffield said. “I like McIlvaine, the team, the players, the manager, but I also have to take care of myself.

“It’d be stupid to sign a long-term contract next year when I’ll be a free agent in two years.

“I know teams will want me, and there might be a team (the San Francisco Giants) real close to my home. I’m not worried. I’ve been proving people wrong all my life, so why should I stop now.”