CEO Sandy Alderson said Monday that the Padres have had no contact recently with free agent closer Trevor Hoffman or his agent. The Padres in November withdrew a one-year, $4 million offer they had made to Hoffman following the 2008 season.
Back on December 3rd, Sandy Alderson said that "hopefully there will be a line of communication at some point" and Alderson seems to get it that this silent feud is aboslutely ridiculous and it is only hurting all the parties involved. He even says that more direct efforts have been made and will be made. In his next interview I guess someone just needs to pin him down for some sort of timeline for when he and the Padres plan on making that direct contact. It's like pulling teeth with these guys.
If the Padres didn't want to re-sign Hoffman I think just about every fan would understand, even if they did have emotional ties. If you watched any of his appearances in the last couple of years you can clearly see that he is not the dominant force that he once was. This is not to say that the Padres wouldn't benefit from having him the bullpen and clubhouse because he can still hold his own with the better half of the relief pitchers in the league.
With the payroll cutbacks and effort to go in a younger direction it would have been easy to just explain to Hoffman that they couldn't bring him back while keeping a working relationship with him in the future. Their number one priority should have been to not ruin that relationship. Whoever's side you're on, whether it's Hoffman's or the Padres', both sides would benefit if they just communicated. Here's the beauty of it too, they still can.
At this time the ball is in the Padres' court, they pulled the contract it's their move. No more back channel attempts, no more vague explanations about semantics, just make the call.