Phil Nevin agreed to a 4-year $34 million dollar contract extension on Thursday. The new deal will keep him with San Diego through 2006. It includes a full no-trade clause for the first 3 years and a partial no-trade for the last two (he can list 8 clubs to which he can block a trade). Nevin will also be able to demand a trade to a short list of clubs of his choice if ballpark construction is delayed or if the Padres become a target for contraction.

When the season ended, GM Kevin Towers said he expected Sean Burroughs to be starting at 3B in the spring. Now the official word as of the Padres Award Dinner is that nothing will be decided until after spring training. They want to take a look at Burroughs at 2B. However, last week they did re-sign second baseman Damian Jackson to a one year, $625,000 deal.

If Burroughs starts at 3B, then Nevin would move to 1B and Ryan Klesko would go out to right field. Mike Darr would become their 5th outfielder, while Ray Lankford and Bubba Trammell could platoon in left. Although Lankford's contract is up at the end of 2002, finding a replacement player should not be excessively difficult.

Regardless of where everyone lands in 2002, they have a solid lineup for the next few years based around a core of Klesko and Nevin. Burroughs, Trammell, Mark Kotsay, and D'Angelo Jimenez are under the Padres' control through at least 2004. They even have a good, young, and cheap catching platoon in Ben Davis and Wiki Gonzalez.

What the Padres offense could really use is a right-handed utility outfielder since the starting lineup is very left-handed. This would not be an issue if they hadn't released Mike Colangelo, a quality utility OF who possesses one of the great names in baseball. (Say it outloud quickly if you don't believe me.) Within their organization, the best choice currently would be to trust the utility job to Cesar Crespo, who didn't impress with a .647 OPS in his 153 2001 AB.

A more interesting option might involve signing Gregg Zaun, which allows them to deal Ben Davis to Colorado for Alex Ochoa and a soft-tossing pitching prospect like lefty Randy Dorame. Dorame (another great name) would be a nice contrast to the Padres' stable of young right-handed power arms. The Rockies should be open to this deal as they'd like to acquire a good defensive catcher with upside, Ochoa doesn't provide the power they need at his position, and soft-tossers don't do well in Coors.

A Step Towards Removing the Twins from the Chop Block:

There was good news for baseball fans on Friday as Minnesota Hennepin County District Judge Harry Seymour Crump released his ruling barring baseball owners from dissolving the Twins next season. He also prevented Carl Pohlad from selling the team to anyone who would not agree to have the team play their 2002 home games at the Metrodome. The decision will have to survive Major League Baseball's appeal, but it is a strong step towards halting contraction. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by the Metrodome operators, who want to enforce the Twins lease which extends through the end of the 2002 season.

In detailed stirring language Judge Crump laid out the many ways in which the baseball team was more than just another private business. If upheld by the appellate court, the decision will mean that until a trial decrees otherwise the Twins cannot be contracted. It would be highly improbable that any trial could be concluded before the start of spring training, less than three months away.

Obviously this alone cannot stop the owners from carrying out their vote to contract two teams. While no teams were specified at the meeting where the vote took place, Minnesota and Montreal were thought to be the prime targets. Contraction of either of the Florida teams means a fight in that state's courts, which have previously held that the anti-trust exemption does not apply to franchise relocation.

As these choices are taken away, it starts to get harder and harder to find legitimate options. The owners may find that Montreal is the only team the surrounding community will allow them to eliminate. If this is the case they may have to revert to alternative solutions, as any contraction needs to be done in even numbers to keep the schedule balanced. We will have to wait and see. This was only one battle of a multi-front war.

Elsewhere on the Minnesota front, Brad Radke is trying to single-handedly affect the final results of the contraction dispute. On Thursday, he let the Twins know that he will not exercise the escape option in his contract that would allow him to demand a trade this off-season. If he exercised the option and the Twins did not trade him before February, he would become a free agent.

Ultimately, the decision does not appear to cost Radke anything as he is happy playing for the Twins, and in the event that contraction becomes a reality he has a no-trade clause in his contract that should make him an automatic free agent. I nonetheless feel that this is a laudable choice as Radke was able to give the fans some hope that the team will stay in Minnesota. If there are others who are as interested in making a difference as Brad, we will keep all 30 teams.