SDUT: DePodesta agrees to stay on past this season

Kevin Towers must be really good at making coffee. Maybe THAT’S why he calls himself the sludge merchant.

Padres CEO Sandy Alderson has reached an agreement with special assistant Paul DePodesta that will keep DePodesta with the club past 2008.

“I fully expect him to be here beyond this year,” Alderson said Friday.

Alderson said DePodesta, a former general manager of the Dodgers, “has had opportunities” to take GM jobs elsewhere since joining the Padres.

According to Alderson, DePodesta is in the final year of a contract the Dodgers issued him in February 2004.

Towers off Limits.

Padres CEO Sandy Alderson has said he would deny the Seattle Mariners permission if they ask to interview General Manager Kevin Towers for their GM job.

Padres President Dick Freeman sees another GM candidate within the ranks: Randy Smith, the Padres’ director of international scouting.