Gwynn Won’t Get Extension of Contract

SAN DIEGO —  For the Padres’ best player, the awakening of the 1988 season has been a rude one.

In a strange switching of roles, Tony Gwynn, a two-time batting champion and Gold Glove winner, has been formally rebuffed by the team in his attempt to remain a Padre at least through 1992. The end came Wednesday morning, after two months and eight meetings’ worth of talking.

Gwynn, a right fielder who is guaranteed this season ($840,000) and next season ($940,000) with an option year in 1990 ($1 million), was seeking two more guaranteed seasons at $1.6 million each.

The Padres agreed to the money--it seems a considerable bargain when one figures that the Dodgers just agreed to pay Kirk Gibson $1.4 million this season. But the Padres would not agree to the guarantee, offering instead other creative proposals covering the two extra years. When Gwynn and agent John Boggs refused those proposals by not contacting Padre President Chub Feeney Wednesday, the talks were finished.

“It is now dead,” Boggs said.

And now the Padres stand a chance a reasonable chance of losing Gwynn by the time he’s 30. Thus concludes an episode of a soap opera as only the Padres can produce one.

Said Gwynn, 27: “I’m not going to talk about my contract until 1990, when I’ll become a free agent. I don’t want to play anywhere else. I’ve never wanted to, but the bottom line is, I may have to.”

Said Feeney: “We want Tony to play here forever. We’re in his corner. But you don’t know what’s going to happen three years from now. There could be a great depression, a great war, all kinds of things. He’s essentially asking for a five-year guaranteed contract, and nobody in baseball has more than a three-year contract.

“We hoped we showed our great respect for Tony by offering what we did. Twenty-five out of the 26 teams wouldn’t have even listened to somebody who wanted to add to a three-year deal. They would have said, ‘Hell, you’ve already got a contract.’ ”

Another stumbling block, Feeney said, is that baseball’s contract with the Major League Baseball Players Assn. is up after the 1989 season. With a new contract come new rules and perhaps new salary structures--and then there’s the possibility of a strike.

“That is definitely a factor,” Feeney said. “We don’t know what that contract will say.”

Whatever happens three years from now, Gwynn said he certainly will be smarter.

“I guess I was naive enough to think that when I walked in there and asked for this, it would be easy,” said Gwynn, who had baseball’s best batting average in 1987 at .370. “I’ve tried to do good work. I’ve been a Padres’ Padre. I’ve gone out and done things in the community, not because they wanted me to do them, but because I’ve wanted to. I love this community; I love being a Padre.

“But the bottom line is, it’s a business. It’s not the Padres’ fault. I’m not pointing fingers. Chub tried everything, all kinds of creative things. They did their best. But I’ve learned it’s a business.”

Gwynn promised to put it all behind him once spring training begins. But he admitted something that opposing pitchers sometimes don’t realize.

“Hey, I’m human,” he said. “Anybody who knows Tony Gwynn knows that he does his job no matter what. I did my job last year with all this bankruptcy stuff hanging over my head. And this won’t stop me, either.

“But I’d be lying if I said there might not be times when I go 0 for 4 and say, ‘Darn, I wish I had that extension.’ ”

Gwynn made a Chapter 7 filing in U.S. bankruptcy court in San Diego last May. In court documents, he listed liabilities of $1,147,000 and assets of $690,150. Gwynn has blamed his financial problems on his too-trusting relationship with his former agent and business manager, Lewis C. Muller. The case is working its way through bankruptcy court, where the judge on Monday denied a bank’s motion that it be allowed to “foreclose” on his contract.

“I don’t know how it (the failed renegotiation) will affect him,” Boggs said. “Between the white lines, he has always been the consummate professional. But he has to have thoughts now and then. We are dealing with the human element.”

Already considered one of baseball’s most underpaid players--this year he will make less than three other Padres, including pitcher Ed Whitson (10-13)--Gwynn initiated the talks Dec. 2, at the ceremony honoring his second consecutive Gold Glove.

At the time he said, “I’m looking to be part of the Padres’ future for six, eight years. I just want to stay here. I want to play my entire career here. I like it here, my family likes it here. If it’s dollars I have to give up, I’m more than willing to do so.”

Gwynn, Boggs and Feeney had their first meeting that day. Since then, they have met seven times.

At one point, Gwynn was hours away from an agreement that would guarantee the 1990 option year and add the two extra years on an option basis.

“But then I slept on it and had a bad dream and called John, and he had the same bad dream,” Gwynn said. “So the next morning, we told them no.”

That dream has something to do with the fact that it would take a perverse miracle for Gwynn to fall so hard in two years that the Padres would not pick up that 1990 option. So why give up two more non-guaranteed years for a 1990 guarantee he probably will receive anyway?

Said Gwynn: “We decided then, we have to have the guarantee or nothing.”

Said Boggs: “I know they have lost a lot of money in long-term deals with other players, but Tony is worth it. They have always gotten more than their money’s worth out of Tony. We don’t think we were out of line.”

At one point, Gwynn and Boggs considered appealing to Padre owner Joan Kroc. But Feeney reminded them that she had entrusted him with running the ballclub and that he was speaking for her.

The Padres finally countered with a couple of proposals, according to Feeney. In each, they would pick up the 1990 option immediately.

In one scenario, they would give him an undisclosed signing bonus spread over the life of the contract in exchange for two option years at a reduced salary. In another, the option years could become guaranteed when he reached certain performance levels.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Give Tony anything he wants,’ and he certainly deserves it, and we’re trying,” said Feeney.

Gwynn repeated, “Chub really did try. That’s part of the reason I’m glad this is over. I don’t like the media and everybody taking shots at Chub. I don’t think that’s necessarily fair.

“I’m glad they are pulling for me, but I’m glad it’s over, and I’m ready to go out and do my job.”

And in 1991? “Tony will come out and find his real worth,” Boggs said.

“Don Mattingly will also be a free agent,” said Gwynn. “He’ll be making $2.5 million, I’ll be making $1 million. We’ll see what happens.”

Concluded Feeney: “It’s a gamble for both of us.”

Padre Notes

Tony Gwynn is so ready for 1988, he’s already issuing warnings: “I think we will come to spring training a better team, but the only thing that scares me is, a lot of our young guys are going to have a lot of pressure to start coming through. It’s going to be put-up-or-shut-up time for them, no question about it. For some of the ones who were here last year, it’s time to start putting out.” . . . Of the Padres’ two remaining arbitration cases, look for just one to go to a hearing, third baseman Chris Brown. He is asking for $410,00, the Padres are offering $265,000, and negotiations have failed to narrow the gap. “We still aren’t even close,” said Brown’s agent, Eric Goldschmidt, whose client made $215,000 last season. “We are ready to go.” The hearing date is Feb. 16 in New York. Presenting the Padres’ case will be a top baseball consultant, Tal Smith. . . . The other pending case should be settled by next week. Pitcher Mark Davis is asking for $570,000; the Padres are offering $465,000, and they probably will settle for around $500,000. . . . Baseball’s only general manager variety show--Trader Jack Sports Talk--began its fourth season on KFMB (760) from 6-7 p.m. Friday. For one hour a week until the start of spring training, Padres General Manager Jack McKeon entertains both live (200-300 fans) and radio audiences with trade talk, trivia, rumors, questions and answers and, as always, prizes. During the course of a show, McKeon gives away everything from autographed baseballs to pennants. “He’s a poor man’s Monty Hall,” said Bill Beck, the Padre media relations director. Said McKeon: “Just trying to keep baseball alive around here. Trying to drum the hot stove.”

The Padres backed off from their most serious free-agent offer to date--a one-year offer to Cincinnati’s Ron Oester--because of uncertainty over the seriousness of Oester’s knee injury, which caused him to miss the second half of last season. Oester eventually signed a minor league contract with the Reds, but some say he will not return to action until midseason. Minnesota free agent Don Baylor is supposed to give the Padres his decision by the end of the week.