Jon Heyman of The New York Post loosely linked the Friars to Goldschmidt last night. Dennis Lin of The Athletic reported tonight that they were indeed among the finalists. The Padres are looking to add another hitter even after signing a $4 million contract Miguel Andujar on Wednesday. President of baseball operations AJ Preller said last weekend that the front office was trying to add “multiple bats, that first base, DH, everything off the bench” (link via WKYC’s Greg Beacham).
Andujar projects as the primary designated hitter. He can spell first baseman Gavin Sheets against left-handed pitching while splitting DH reps with Visual. The KBO signee has multi-positional flexibility allowing them to accommodate a different first base/DH type. The bench was a weakness for the Padres last season and appears to continue to be so. Song and backup catcher Luis Campusano project for two places. That leaves two openings with only four other position players on the 40-man roster: Bryce Johnson, Will Wagner, Mason McCoy And Tirso Ornelas.
They’re all marginal 40-man types. Out of options, Johnson hit .342 over 84 at-bats last year, but that was driven by a .442 ball-in-game average that isn’t close to sustainable. Ornelas has been an average hitter in Triple-A for two full seasons and hasn’t achieved a significant MLB look before his 26th birthday. McCoy was a below-average offensive player in the minors, while Wagner fell out of the mix in Toronto, hitting .225/.324/.279 in 55 MLB games last year.
Rhys Hoskins, Wilmer Flores, Justin Turner and old friend Ty France are undrafted, righty first basemen. Marcell Ozuna, Mitch Garver And Andrew McCutchen are available designated hitters. Speculative trading opportunities include Ryan Mountcastle, Sosa Island And Ezequiel Duran.
San Diego likely has some action coming on the pitching side as well. Preller said last week they were looking to add another starter. It will probably be a cheaper back-end type, but they kicked the tires on what would have been a much larger acquisition. Heyman reports where the Padres were among the teams involved Framber Valdez before his three-year, $115 million deal with the Tigers. The Padres could wait in the market to land Nick Pivetta as a pickup in February a year ago, but Valdez was given a much bigger contract that probably never came in under budget.
Most of the remaining free agents are starting pitchers. Zac Gallen, Max Scherzer, Zack Littell, Justin Verlander, Luke Giolito and organizational favorite Nick Martinez are not signed. Walker Buhler, Patrick Korbin, Miles Mikolas, German Marquez And Jose Quintana will be limited to modest one-year salaries if they can even secure major league deals.
Signing everyone from that group could push JP Sears to long relief or to the Triple-A rotation. They open the year with a strong top three from Pivetta, Michael King And Joe Musgrove. The talent level drops significantly after that. Randy Vasquez has run out of options and appears to have a ticket for one of the last two spots. sears, Kyle Hart And Matt Waldron are the only other starters on the 40-man roster. They added Mark Gonzales And Triston McKenzie about minor league deals with invitations to Spring Training.
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