SAN DIEGO -- The news that the Chicago Cubs signed pitcher Ryan Dempster on Tuesday could severely affect the club's participation in the Jake Peavy sweepstakes.

But according to some published reports, it might not.

Five days earlier, the Atlanta Braves pulled out of trade talks with the Padres, seemingly ending their interest in the former Cy Young winner. Then on Monday, however, Padres general manager Kevin Towers indicated in published reports that the Braves might still be a possibility.

All of the information and misinformation floating around could be enough to drive a star pitcher and his agent crazy.

That's why Peavy's agent, Barry Axelrod, is trying to stay out of it as much as possible. But the news that Dempster signed a four-year, $52 million contract on Tuesday brought more speculators out of the woodwork.

"I don't take anything at its face value," Axelrod said. "There's a lot of information thrown around, rumors thrown around. … People try to spin things and some make off-hand comments into a lot more than they are. There's a lot of gamesmanship. When I hear that the Braves have taken themselves out of it, it might be a negotiating stance. They might try to sign C.C. Sabathia, but if he goes somewhere else they might come back. I don't try to understand it. We just try to react to significant things or specific things put in front of us."

As Towers -- who wasn't available for comment Tuesday -- expands his search to find more suitors for Peavy, including perhaps Atlanta, Axelrod maintains that the list of the pitcher's five preferred teams was only a rough sketch and arrived when he was pressed for guidance. But Axelrod said the only stern guideline he gave was that Peavy "prefers the National League over the American League," and even that might be negotiable.

"There are probably six or eight more teams we'd be willing to look at," Axelrod said. "The input we gave was to be cooperative and help them out."

So who's still alive in the field to acquire Peavy?

A Foxsports.com report on Tuesday indicated that the Cubs, in spite of a rotation featuring Dempster, Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly and Rich Harden, could still be interested in Peavy depending upon which group takes over ownership of the organization. The report said an ownership group would be decided upon before Thanksgiving.

But some team sources have indicated the Padres liked where discussions with the Cubs were headed, it appears a third team would have to be involved for a trade to work out.

As far as the Braves are concerned, they would have to part with more than they were offering as of Thursday. One team source said that the Padres like what Atlanta has to offer -- even without top pitching prospect Tommy Hanson included -- but it would have to step up its offer.

"You never know … we certainly made more progress with them," Towers told Padres.com. "We were able to ID and agree upon a large part of the package."

On Monday, Towers also told Padres.com that he hadn't recently spoke with the New York Yankees. During the general manager's meetings earlier this month, Towers said that he and Yankees GM Brian Cashman briefly discussed Peavy but he didn't want to get Cashman's hopes up. Towers also said that he had yet to speak with the Los Angeles Angels.

Contact staff writer Dan Hayes at dhayes@nctimes.com.