Less than a week after the only suitor for Peavy -- the Chicago Cubs -- backed out of a potential deal on the final day of the Winter Meetings, Padres CEO Sandy Alderson made it sound like Peavy would start next season with the team.

"We are no longer actively pursuing any trade for Jake, which is not to say someone won't approach us," Alderson told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "We said from the very beginning ... that we would not make a trade unless it made baseball sense."

San Diego general manager Kevin Towers, who was unavailable for comment on Monday, said Thursday in Las Vegas, at the conclusion of the Winter Meetings, that there was a good chance Peavy would start next season with the team.

Towers indicated that there could come a time, perhaps as soon as this week, when the team would state publicly that they would retain Peavy and his $11 million contract for 2009 and the remaining $63 million on the deal he signed last December.

Peavy, who holds a no-trade clause, could certainly increase the list of teams that he would approve a deal to, though his preference is to stay in the National League. As of last week, Towers said, the Cubs were the only club in the mix for the 2007 Cy Young Award winner.

Last Thursday, the Cubs pulled out of a potential deal for Peavy, as Chicago GM Jim Hendry opted to pass on a deal that would have involved a third team and likely would have resulted in a pitching-heavy package of players for the Padres.

"If we had to start the season with Jake back in San Diego, we'd be more than happy to do that," Towers said recently. "Having moved [shortstop Khalil Greene's] salary, it's going to have to be a deal we're real comfortable with."