Padres go south of border for pitching

By: SHAUN O'NEILL - Staff Writer | Monday, December 15, 2003 10:07 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- The Padres on Monday reached an agreement to acquire what they called "the best pitcher in Mexico" and moved toward acquiring another Mexican-born pitcher.

Padres general manager Kevin Towers said he was in the final stages of reaching contract terms with free-agent right-hander Ismael Valdes, who will be given a chance to win a job in the rotation. Valdes will be joined in camp by reliever Edgar Huerta, a left-hander whose fastball reportedly reaches 97 mph.

Despite his lack of major-league experience, Huerta will be the costlier of the two. Valdes will get a one-year contract for less than $1 million. The Padres will pay significantly more than that to the Mexico Tigres to purchase Huerta's contract.

Huerta, 23, was 4-2 with a 3.70 ERA in 31 games (five starts) for the Tigres last summer. He had 69 strikeouts in 53 innings but also issued 38 walks. In winter ball, he has a 2.59 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings with Culiacan.

The Padres have an affiliation with the Mexico City Red Devils, which gives them first crack at talent from that club. With Huerta, however, the Padres had to outbid other major-league teams.

"There were several clubs that had interest in him," Towers said from the baseball winter meetings in New Orleans. "He can get it up to 97 mph and has a plus slider."

The Padres' affiliation with the Red Devils indirectly led them to Huerta. It was Red Devils president Roberto Mansur who told them Huerta finished last season as "the best pitcher in Mexico." The skeptic will point to the fact that Huerta was in spring training with the pitching-poor Tampa Bay Devil Rays but did not make the cut.

If Huerta has indeed become major-league caliber, he would join Kevin Walker as the Padres' two lefties in the bullpen.

Valdes, 30, arrives as a more familiar name but no more proven a commodity. A double-figure winner in four straight seasons (1995-98) with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he hasn't reached 10 wins in any season since 1998 while battling a series of injuries. Valdes was 8-8 with a 6.10 ERA for the Texas Rangers last season.

He was limited to 22 starts by shoulder tendinitis and the Rangers' decision not to use him in the final month after they determined he did not fit into their plans.

Texas did not offer him arbitration, so he won't cost the Padres a draft pick when they complete the deal.

Towers said Valdes will compete with lefty Sterling Hitchcock for a spot toward the end of the rotation. Hitchcock, also a free agent, has agreed to a one-year contract that will become official this week if he clears a physical exam.

Towers will depart New Orleans this morning without the ace pitcher he covets. A bid for free agent Greg Maddux remains weeks away, if it comes at all.

Between now and then, Towers will watch which pitchers become free agents after Saturday's deadline for clubs to tender 2004 contract offers.

The nontendered free agents could include Seattle right-hander Freddy Garcia. The Mariners have been shopping him in New Orleans, hoping to make a trade before they must choose whether to let him leave as a free agent or risk going through salary arbitration.