With ESPN tugging at him and a desire to work with young pitchers, Rick Sutcliffe knew at the end of the 2004 season that something had to go. That something is the 40 Padres games he worked as an analyst for Channel 4 San Diego.

"ESPN wants me to do more," said Sutcliffe, the 1979 National League Rookie of the Year and the '84 NL Cy Young Award winner. "They want me to work more nights on 'Baseball Tonight.'

"I'll work the Monday night game, and they want to give that a national feel. Plus, I work the All-Star Game, the playoffs and World Series, and I work for MLB International.

"And I want to give back to the game. I talked with (Padres general manager Kevin Towers) and I'll work with the team's young pitchers in spring training. And I'll work with the Rookie League kids after the draft in June. I even talked to (scouting director) Bill Gayton about doing some scouting.

"I just had to eliminate something."

Repeated calls to officials at Channel 4 were not returned, but it is known that Mark Grant and Tony Gwynn will pick up the bulk of Sutcliffe's workload with new radio voice Tim Flannery available for duty.

"I'll miss working for Channel 4," Sutcliffe said. "Working with Bob Chandler, a man I very much admire, opened the door for me in the broadcast business.

"But after a 16-year big league career, the most fun I had in baseball was in 1996 and '97 working with young pitchers like Kevin Walker, Rodrigo Lopez, Jake Peavy and Brian Lawrence in rookie ball. And I love the fact the young pitchers are working with Darren Balsley at the big-league level. He's really, really good.

"Quite simply in my case, a change had to be made."

Sutcliffe had several offers in the offseason to work for other ballclubs.

Among others, he was contacted by the Cubs and Dodgers, who also had interest in Channel 4 play-by-play voice Matt Vasgersian.

Contact staff writer John Maffei at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.