Saving Face : Padres’ Hoffman Stops the Boos, Makes Unpopular Trade Look Good

Trevor Hoffman is throwing heat instead of taking it these days.

Hoffman’s late-inning appearances have always created a stir among Padre fans. After a recent game, the crowd of 51,021--the largest at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium this season--stood and shouted its appreciation after Hoffman worked the Padres out of a jam.

Quite a different reaction from three years ago.

Padre fans booed then, loudly and often. Hoffman could hardly blame them. He was fuel to an already raging fire sale.

The Padres were divesting themselves of expensive talent in 1993, trading Gary Sheffield and Fred McGriff. Hoffman, a Savanna High graduate, was one of the “no-names,” coming from the Florida Marlins in the Sheffield deal.

It’s been a long climb, from scapegoat to sacred cow.

“I was an unknown guy who was traded for a marquee player,” Hoffman said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself at first, trying to show people it wasn’t a bad trade. I don’t think I’ll ever win them all over. I’m sure there is some skeptic out there still angry because Gary is a great player.”

Hoffman could be right. There may be a doubter or two lingering. They are just hard to hear over all the praise.

There are few closers who are better than Hoffman. He has saved 51 games the past two seasons, including 31 in 1995 despite a tear in his rotator cuff that required surgery in October.

This season, he is tied for sixth in the National League with 18 saves and has a 2.53 earned-run average. Those numbers are hard for Padre fans to hate, even though Sheffield is hitting .299 with 26 home runs and 63 runs batted in.

Hoffman may even be worth a Sheffield-like payday. He is in the last year of his contract and the Padres must re-sign him or risk the wrath of their fans.

As vocal as they were about Hoffman’s arrival, they are even more zealous about his presence now. Callers to a San Diego sports talk radio show recently expressed their anger about Hoffman being left off the all-star team. Their bias is understandable.

While Padre hitters keep coming up lame--Rickey Henderson, Wally Joyner and Tony Gwynn have been on the disabled list this season--the pitching staff has kept the team in contention. And there is little doubt who is the backbone of the staff.

“What is there to say other than the obvious?” said Gwynn, who could be out as long as six weeks because of a heel injury. “Trevor has gotten better and better each year. Before too long, he’s going to be the most dominant closer in the league. He’s working himself into a prime-time situation where he’s going to get paid a bunch because he’s the best.”

Put even more directly. . . .

“Who wouldn’t want a guy like Trevor Hoffman as your closer?” Manager Bruce Bochy said.

A rhetorical question these days. Three years ago, the answers came faster than Hoffman could throw.

It wasn’t that Padre fans had anything personal against Hoffman. He was just the perfect whipping boy in lieu of Tom Werner, then the team’s owner.

The Padres were on a downsizing binge in 1993, purging salaries to make the team more attractive to potential buyers. Sheffield made nearly $3 million and McGriff $4 million. Both seemed to earn every penny. Sheffield nearly won the triple crown in 1992 and McGriff, who was traded to the Atlanta Braves, had been baseball’s most consistent home run hitter the previous five years.

Hoffman, on the other hand, was an inexperienced reliever who made the major league minimum $109,000.

“At the time of the trade, we were in sixth place, 20 games out of first and 20 games under .500,” said Randy Smith, then the Padre general manager. “We didn’t want to pay those types of salaries on a bad team.”

What the Padres got in return were two minor league players and Hoffman, who was drafted as an infielder by the Cincinnati Reds in 1989, then converted to a pitcher two years later.

Hoffman was the only one in the trade who went to the Padres, and he became the focal point for the anger. Never mind that his fastball was clocked in the mid-90s or that he had been an effective setup man for the Marlins--Hoffman was 2-2 with two saves as Bryan Harvey’s caddie.

He was not considered ample compensation for Sheffield. That opinion was reinforced and expressed after Hoffman gave up three runs in one inning in his Padre debut.

“I tried to strike everybody out and be overwhelming,” Hoffman said. “Before I knew it, things had slipped away. I was attempting to do stuff beyond my capabilities at the time.

“I had mixed emotions. I was coming from Florida where people were just happy to have baseball. San Diego was completely different. But if I was a fan, I would have booed too. I have in the past. I went to a lot of Angel games as a kid. One night, Doug DeCinces booted a ball he should have had. I was an unruly kid, kind of a punk, and I started screaming, ‘You’re terrible.’ It came back to haunt me. Fans pay good money and they expect people to perform to a certain level.”

That night, a dejected Hoffman talked to his brother Glenn, who played eight seasons with the Boston Red Sox, Dodgers and Angels.

“He told me it was going to be the best move of my career,” said Hoffman.

It was a tough sell at first, but his brother was right.

Hoffman, who was 2-4 with three saves for the Padres in 1993, saved 20 games in 1994. He had a sore shoulder last season, which reduced his velocity. To compensate, he developed a changeup and finished sixth in the league in saves.

The soreness was gone after the surgery. The changeup remained.

“You just can’t go up and sit on the heater,” Gwynn said. “I’ve seen many a hitter just wave at that changeup.”

They certainly have this season.

Hoffman gave up only two runs in 19 1/3 innings leading up to the all-star break. He had two victories and seven saves during that 13-game stretch. The Padres, who at one point lost 19 of 23 games, went 9-2 before the break to retake the West Division lead.

Hoffman has 61 strikeouts in 46 1/3 innings, an average of 12 every nine innings, and has walked only 14.

“I think Trevor has justified what the club was doing [in 1993],” Smith said.

Of course, Hoffman is the only reference point. None of the other five players acquired for McGriff and Sheffield are with the Padres. But the one who is there has stopped hearing about it.

“Three years ago the fans had to wonder, ‘Who the heck is Trevor Hoffman?’ ” Hoffman said. “That’s turned around. It does seem like a lot more than three years has gone by and this team has had quite a few face-lifts since. But I’m glad the fans have appreciated my work ethic and desire to win.”