A proposed trade with the Cubs for Padres pitcher Jake Peavy fell through this week during Baseball's winter meetings in Las Vegas. Peavy's agent, however, is confident trade talks could heat up again this season.
"The word on the street here is the Padres are in pretty dire financial straits, partly because of the economy and partly because of a 99-loss season and partly because the owner and his wife are going through a pretty difficult divorce," Barry Axelrod said Thursday. "And the word is they cannot infuse more money into the team right now. Without that, they are looking at a team in the $40 million [salary] range. If that's the case, then it is hard to win. And I am not sure that they can go with a $40 million payroll and pay one guy (Peavy) $11 million. It is likely between now and the middle of next year, Jake won't be with the Padres."
Axelrod described Peavy as being "frustrated and disappointed" after the trade talks with the Cubs came to a halt, at least temporarily.
Cubs general manager Jim Hendry and Padres GM Kevin Towers had discussions last week, but Hendry said he was uncomfortable about the "volume of players" requested by San Diego, reportedly six, among them Sean Marshall, Josh Vitters and Angel Guzman.
"[Tuesday], this looked like it might get done," Axelrod said. "There seemed to be an air of optimism. Then [Wednesday] it seemed to ebb a little bit. It sounded like there might be a couple of issues going on."
fmitchell@tribune.com
