Braves Get McGriff in Padre Trade

Fred McGriff, the most consistent home run hitter in baseball the last five years, was traded to the Atlanta Braves for three minor leaguers on Sunday as the San Diego Padres continued to slash their payroll.

McGriff, whose $4-million salary was the highest of any Padre, was traded for outfielders Melvin Nieves and Vince Moore, and pitcher Donnie Elliott as the two-time defending National League champion Braves hoped to improve their poor offense. The Braves’ .246 batting average is the lowest in the league and they are ranked near the bottom in runs scored.

Atlanta trails the first-place San Francisco Giants by eight games in the National League West.

“We have a ways to go, but it will be exciting,” said McGriff, who leaves the sixth-place Padres. “It will be a challenge and I’m getting closer and closer to Tampa,” he said, referring to his hometown.

Said Brave Manager Bobby Cox: “He’s an impact player. Any club can certainly use a guy like that. We certainly can.”

A little more than three weeks ago the Padres traded 1992 NL batting champion Gary Sheffield, also a Tampa resident, to the Florida Marlins because of his $3.11-million salary.

It was the first time in major league history that a club has traded separate home run and batting champions from the previous season. In 1901, the Philadelphia Athletics traded Nap Lajoie to Cleveland, and in 1933 the Philadelphia Phillies sent Chuck Klein to the Chicago Cubs. Lajoie and Klein were each coming off of triple crown seasons.

McGriff said he never would have envisioned a team trading both the defending batting champion and home run king.

“I’m 29, getting close to 30, but Gary is 24. That’s pretty young. I would’ve figured that I would’ve been traded before him,” he said.

“From what they’ve been telling me, it’s basically money,” McGriff said. “I never thought it would get to the day where I made too much money and it became a bad situation.”

Tony Gwynn, one of the players the Padres plan to build around, was disappointed that the Padres didn’t get some of the players he considered to be the Braves’ top prospects, such as first baseman Ryan Klesko, catcher Javier Lopez and outfielder Mike Kelly.

“You trade somebody like Freddie McGriff, you expect to get some quality in return,” Gwynn said. “We’ll have to wait and see what’s going to turn out with these guys. I think the fact that none of them are coming here doesn’t speak all that well.

“I’m frustrated. I can’t understand why we’re doing what we’re doing.”

Nieves, a switch-hitter, and Elliott, a right-hander, will move from triple-A Richmond to triple-A Las Vegas. Moore will move from Class-A Durham to Class-A Rancho Cucamonga.