Staying Put
San Diego,Ca – Jake Peavy sounded a bit surprised to be at spring training with the San Diego Padres. Not miffed or frustrated, just surprised.
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After an offseason filled with speculation he would be traded to the Chicago Cubs or Atlanta Braves, the ace was in Padres camp Saturday at Peoria, Ariz.
“I thought it was going to happen with all of the talk and all of the speculation,” Peavy said. “I prepared myself that I’m going to be traded and life goes on. That’s why I didn’t choose to comment. Because everybody in their right mind thought I would be somewhere else right now.”
For the record, Peavy is fine with playing for the Padres.
“I never came forward and said I wanted to leave San Diego,” he said. “I signed a five-year contract and said I’m intent on being a Padre. This offseason wasn’t brought on by me asking for a trade. … My heart and soul has always been here and until the day I leave that’s going to be true.”
Peavy was 10-11 with a 2.85 ERA last season. He is guaranteed $59 million through 2012. In the meantime, the 27-year-old Peavy is getting set to pitch for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.
Padre and I committed to be a San Diego Padre for as long as they’ll have me. There’s no hard feelings toward any group that was involved and I hope it’s the same way all around. I didn’t do anything. It just didn’t happen,” he said.
Don Wakamatsu, meanwhile, was glad to make a move. He’s the new manager of the Seattle Mariners, a season after he was the bench coach in Oakland.
Before drills began Saturday, Wakamatsu held a short meeting with the pitchers and catchers.
His message to a team that lost 101 games last year: “They are going to control a lot of their own destiny by the work they put in and by their health,” he said.
It was a profitable day for Los Angeles Angels pitcher Ervin Santana. He agreed to a $30 million, four-year contract, a day after their scheduled arbitration hearing was postponed.
The 26-year-old Santana is the youngest active big league pitcher with at least 50 wins. He went 16-7 with a 3.49 ERA for the AL West champions.
“I’m very happy, you guys don’t even know,” Santana said at a news conference with general manager Tony Reagins. “I wanted to be an Angel.”
Houston ace Roy Oswalt and Arizona manager Bob Melvin have a wish list, too. They want to see the other 103 names on the list of players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003 made public.
releasing one here and there,” Oswalt said. “I mean it’s been … years. Get it over with. Don’t let it linger and go on for three more years.”
“Let’s get them all out there, move on and start playing baseball. That’s the worst thing about it … the way they’re going about it,” he said.
Now that Alex Rodriguez’s name is known, Melvin said the others on the list should also be revealed.
“There are quite a few names out there that are still potentially going to come out and I think if we are going to move past this, I think all those names are going to have to come out so we can move past it,” Melvin said.
“You don’t want a trickle down effect where every couple months with somebody else where you’re readdressing this issue. This is something we need to get by,” he said.
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Posted: 2/15/09 1:05PM ET
