San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
GONZALEZ SETS RECORD STRAIGHT ON DEPARTURE
He says ‘I wish I’d been able to take a hometown discount’
Adrian Gonzalez never wanted to leave. And he tried to come back twice.
So he remains a bit confused over the confusion.
After hearing boos every time his name was announced as a visitor at Petco Park following his departure from the Padres in a 2010 trade, Gonzalez earlier this month read some of the replies to his retirement announcement on social media asserting it was time for him to mend his relationship with the city and its team.
“I think the biggest thing here is the fans don’t have the facts about my departure,” Gonzalez said in an interview this week. “… People always say I left for the money. In reality, I wish I’d been able to take a hometown discount.”
A longtime and still parttime San Diego resident, Gonzalez officially retired from baseball earlier this month after playing in Mexico last year and for the Mexican Olympic team over the summer.
His last season in the majors was 2018, when he played in 54 games for the New York Mets.
That was after he was traded from the Dodgers and subsequently designated for assignment by the Atlanta Braves the previous December. And it was after Gonzalez and his San Diegobased agent, John Boggs, made what they said was their first call — to the Padres to express a desire to return to the organization for which Gonzalez played from 2006 through ’10. He was seeking a one-year deal for the MLB minimum, but the Padres declined. Boggs also spoke with the Padres about Gonzalez going to spring training on a minor league deal in ’19.
“I wanted to finish my career as a Padre,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez was not only one of the most productive players in franchise history, but his departure from San Diego is a significant part of the Padres’ lore — particularly the organization’s practice of parting ways with excellent players in their prime
for the primary purpose of cost savings.
Gonzalez arrived in 2006 as part of a deal that also brought Chris Young and Terrmel Sledge to the Padres and sent Adam Eaton and Akinori Otsuka to the Texas Rangers. Gonzalez had to that point compiled a .229 batting average and hit seven homers in 59 games over parts of two big-league seasons.
The Eastlake High grad, who was born in Tijuana and during his youth lived there and in San Diego’s South Bay, came into his own at home.
In 2010, Gonzalez made his third consecutive Allstar team and finished fourth in MVP voting. He hit 31 home runs, his fourth straight season with at least 30.
He batted .298 with a .393 on-base percentage while driving in 101 runs for that ’10 team, which faltered at the end but was widely seen as having greatly overachieved in a 90-win season.
“Adrian, he was incredible,” said Jed Hoyer, who was in his first season as Padres general manager in 2010. “What a great player to watch. Everything came easy. His at-bats were amazing. Defensively, he could throw, he could pick everything. … In 2010, we won 90 games with a lineup that was a bunch of guys. He was making a lot of guys better because he was always on base and (opponents) were afraid of him.”
Gonzalez’s 161 home runs in five seasons with the Padres were ninth most in the majors from 2006-10 and are two shy of Nate Colbert’s
franchise record, set from 1969 to ’74. Gonzalez won two Gold Gloves at first base.
But following a nearly two-year buildup of the inevitable, the 28-year-old Gonzalez, who was due to become a free agent after the 2011 season, was traded to the Boston Red Sox in December 2010 for highly rated prospects Casey Kelly and Anthony Rizzo. (That Kelly was plagued by elbow issues and Rizzo was traded two years later for Andrew Cashner are yet more branches on the Padres’ tree of misfortune.)
As Gonzalez and Boggs recalled, there were virtually no contract negotiations with the Padres.
Boggs met with Hoyer early in 2010 and confirmed the parameters of the deal Gonzalez sought were somewhere in the neighborhood of the eight-year, $180 million contract Mark Teixeira signed the previous offseason with the New York Yankees. This week, Boggs and Hoyer recalled the general tone of the meeting similarly — cordial, respectful and containing a mutual understanding that the Padres could not afford to keep Gonzalez. A conversation following the season was characterized by both men as essentially a check-in.
“There was never an any in-depth negotiation,” Boggs said. “… There was never an offer.”
Gonzalez may have wanted to be given the chance to accept a hometown discount. But such a discount would have had to be monumental.
The Padres’ opening-day payroll in 2011 was $40.5 million. A little more than two weeks into that season, his first with Boston, Gonzalez signed a seven-year contract with an average annual value of $22 million.
“Of course, you’re looking to build a team and would love to have a cornerstone Gold Glove first baseman and No. 3 hitter,” said Hoyer, now the Chicago Cubs’ president of baseball operations. “But it just wasn’t realistic. Adrian was on a supercheap contract that was ending. He was going to get a lot of money. And those weren’t the Padres of 2021; those were the Padres of 2011. … There was no way to make it work. I totally respect he wanted to stay there. But our front office was in the position of trying to do the best thing for the organization (for the long term.)”