ASHBY WAS THE PLAYER TO BE NAMED LATER

General Manager Randy Smith already had traded away Gary Sheffield and Fred Mcgriff. The next phase of the Padres’ fire sale landed on this date — July 26 — in 1993 when veteran pitchers Bruce Hurst and Greg Harris were sent to the Colorado Rockies.

The return fetched arguably the best young defensive catcher in the game in Brad Ausmus, reliever Doug Bochtler and a player to be named later, who wound up more valuable to the Padres than anyone else received in the swap: Andy Ashby.

The 26-year-old righthander debuted with the Padres days later with six runs allowed in six innings.

He wound up staying eight years, going 70-62 with a 3.59 ERA over 187 appearances. Ashby, once an undrafted free agent, turned in his best year en route to helping the Padres to the World Series in 1998, going 17-9 with a 3.34 ERA.

Ashby’s 22.6 career WAR, as calculated by baseball-reference.com, ranks fifth all time in Padres history behind Tony Gwynn (69.2), Dave Winfield (32.0), Jake Peavy (26.8) and Trevor Hoffman (25.8).

Hoffman arrived in the Sheffield trade roughly a month before Hurst and Harris were shipped off to make sure the Padres received some form of compensation before they walked as free agents.

“This is all part of the long-term plan,” Smith said.

Ausmus, indeed, started an 18-year career in San Diego, hitting .255/.314/.365 over parts of four seasons before he was traded to the Tigers, who later asked him to be their big-league manager.

Bochtler spent three of his six years in the majors with the Padres, going 9-14 with a 3.78 ERA out of the bullpen. He later became their big-league pitching coach and was set to serve as high Single-a Lake Elsinore’s pitching coach this year.

Also on this date

1970: LF Al Ferrara set a career high with five RBIS on two homers in a 16-2 win in Philadelphia.

1977: LF Gene Richards set a club extra-inning record with six hits in a 5-2 loss to Montreal in 15 innings at San Diego Stadium. The feat has since been matched by Joe Lefebvre, Tony Gwynn and Adrian Gonzalez.

1998: Closer Trevor Hoffman gave up a game-tying, ninth-inning homer to the Astros’ Moises Alou, halting his consecutive saves streak at 41, tied for the major league record. The Padres won, 5-4, in 10 innings at Qualcomm Stadium on Andy Sheets’ walk-off single.