Padres Trade Vaughn to the Reds for Sanders

Figuring they couldn’t afford Greg Vaughn beyond this season, the San Diego Padres traded him Tuesday to the Cincinnati Reds for Reggie Sanders and a two minor leaguers.

It was a shock to Vaughn, who set a Padre record with 50 homers last season and thought the franchise would retain the nucleus of its NL pennant-winner once voters approved funding for a new stadium last November.

“We don’t understand,” Vaughn said. “We felt that once we got the stadium, we were going to be able to stay together. And once we got the stadium, everybody’s gone. We were misled a little bit.”

The five-player deal gave the Padres an often-injured outfielder and another parallel with the Florida Marlins, who broke up their World Series team shortly after their title in 1997. The Padres also gave up pinch-hit specialist Mark Sweeney and received middle infielder Damian Jackson, who has spent the last three seasons at triple-A, and right-hander Josh Harris, who pitched at Class A last season.

Since San Diego got swept by the New York Yankees in the World Series, it has given up or lost Kevin Brown, Ken Caminiti, Steve Finley, Joey Hamilton and now Vaughn. Vaughn will make $5.75 million--$850,000 of it deferred--in the final year of his three-year contract.

“All we’ve been trying to do is get younger,” Padre General Manager Kevin Towers said. “We’ve achieved that with Reggie and Damian. The thing that’s most appealing is we’re able to control Reggie for another year [2000] and Vaughn, we don’t know if we could.”

Sanders makes $3.7 million this season and his contract has a team option for 2000 at $3.7 million. The Reds have repeatedly tried to trade him, but found teams reluctant because of his injuries. Sanders figured that with spring training a month away, he would stay with the Reds.

The trade pushes Cincinnati’s payroll over $30 million. Although Vaughn knew there was a chance he would be traded, he never considered the cost-conscious Reds a possibility.

“I heard this is an organization that uses both sides of the paper, that the last thing they wanted to do was spend money,” Vaughn said. “It caught me in a big surprise. I didn’t really know how to take it. Then I have some friends who said, ‘Don’t unpack,’ you know what I mean?”

Bowden hopes the trade increases ticket sales enough so the Reds can keep Vaughn for the entire season. If not, they have another marquee player to trade in July for prospects.

At least temporarily, the trade fills the Reds’ biggest hole. They hit only 138 homers last season, 12th in the NL, and traded Bret Boone, their leader with 24, to Atlanta for pitcher Denny Neagle.

Sanders, 31, had a breakthrough season in 1995, hitting .306 with 28 homers and 99 RBIs as the Reds reached the playoffs.

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Angel pitcher Jack McDowell underwent successful shoulder surgery but it is too early to tell whether he can pitch this season.

Doctors repaired the damage in McDowell’s pitching shoulder but the team had no estimated rehabilitation period. Arthroscopic surgery, the procedure used on McDowell, typically requires four to six months of rehabilitation.

McDowell, 33, was 5-3 with a 5.09 earned-run average last season. He was held to 14 starts because of elbow injuries. In December, the Angels signed him to a contract that includes $500,000 in base salary and $5 million in incentive opportunities, but none of the money is guaranteed.