Headlines

  • Red Sox Place Hunter Dobbins On 15-Day IL Due To ACL Tear
  • Astros Promote Brice Matthews
  • Red Sox Likely To Activate Alex Bregman Tomorrow
  • Phillies Reportedly Targeting Controllable Relievers
  • Yankees Prioritizing Pitching, Also Searching For Infield Help
  • Orioles Trade Bryan Baker To Rays
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

Remove Ads
  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Guardians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Oakland Athletics
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2025 Trade Deadline Outlook Series
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Agency Database
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Padres To Sign Carlos Villanueva

By Steve Adams | January 13, 2016 at 3:01pm CDT

The Padres have reached agreement on a one-year, $1.5MM deal with righty Carlos Villanueva, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reports on Twitter. Villanueva is represented by Relativity Sports.

The 32-year-old Villanueva spent the 2015 campaign with St. Louis, where he worked in a multi-inning relief role, logging 61 innings across 35 appearances. With the Cardinals, he worked to a very strong 2.95 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a 42.4 percent ground-ball rate. Villanueva stranded an inordinate amount of baserunners, prompting sabermetric ERA estimators like FIP, xFIP and SIERA to peg him more for an ERA in the mid- to upper-3.00 range, so a repeat of that sub-3.00 ERA might not be something Padres fans should count on. He’ll also most likely be moving to an inferior defensive club, although on the flip side, he’ll be moving to a more pitcher-friendly home park.

Villanueva could compete for a rotation spot or a reprise his bullpen role with the Padres, as he has experience in both capacities. However, if he’s to assume the role of long reliever/swingman, that would seem to make Odrisamer Despaigne a somewhat redundant piece. Despaigne soaked up 125 1/3 innings for the Padres in that capacity last season, although he also posted a sky-high 5.80 ERA and saw his strikeout rate drop considerably in his second season of Major League action.

Share 36 Retweet 8 Send via email0

San Diego Padres Transactions Carlos Villanueva

Alexei Bell Departs Cuba In Search Of MLB Deal
Main
Diamondbacks To Acquire Cody Hall
View Comments (10)
Post a Comment

10 Comments

  1. Paco 3

    10 years ago

    Exactly what SD had been looking for, a quality mop up reliever! Great signing!

    Reply
  2. legit1213

    10 years ago

    Dang, I was hoping Cards would bring him back! He’s versatile, and serves as a great long man too.

    I hope he’s retired the creepy moustache look, though.

    Reply
  3. cardfan2011

    10 years ago

    So long Villanueva! Thanks for the contribution!

    Reply
  4. Browntown

    10 years ago

    Another piece for he bullpen, all good but where’s our shortstop? They have been running that same story for awhile. Also where’s our stud 1B or LF?

    Reply
  5. bleacherbum

    10 years ago

    Nice pick up. Nice veteran presence for what looks like to be a very young and unexpirenced bullpen for the Padres.

    Reply
  6. RedFeather

    10 years ago

    Surprised it took this long for someone to sign him.. Great pick up SD

    Reply
  7. deda

    10 years ago

    I’m curious as to exactly what value others may believe the Padres have gotten from A.J. since he was signed as GM. To date he spent a bunch of money for several suspect players and contracts. This was done at the expense of our farm system which was not abundant to begin with. Now that that experiment has failed (many would say predictably) he sends off players to rebuild our minor league system which even after the dust has cleared is still only rated 25th in MLB. Meanwhile, Atlanta restocked their minor league system in a lopsided trade with the Diamondbacks for a middle to back of the rotation pitcher. When hired we were told that his strength was that he was a top evaluator of talent with an unsurpassed knowledge of the foreign market and the minor leagues. Yet the Padres aren’t even in the conversation when the signing of top players from around the world are mentioned. Is Carlos Villanueva really the most noteworthy signing? Could it be that ultimately this was just a “bait and switch” of epic proportions and that A.J. was signed for no other reason that he came with a cheapest price tag?

    Reply
  8. seth3120

    10 years ago

    This isn’t a blockbuster but a one year 1.5m deal is a great deal. Not sure why stl didn’t get this done I wouldn’t have thought twice at maybe double that amount at least on a one year deal. Who fills the void he left? I wouldn’t want to put any young guy with promise in that role they need consistent innings.

    Reply
  9. greatd

    10 years ago

    His underline numbers last year weren’t great, meaning that his era last year was supported by a great strand rate. 1.5m deal for a mop up guy ain’t bad, but the fans should not think of him as an elite reliever. He’s never had an era below 4 until last year people.

    Reply
  10. YourDaddy

    10 years ago

    We keep adding more mediocre and AAA arms to the pen. Is Preller just hoping that if he throws enough mud against the wall that something will stick?

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.

Log in Register

    Top Stories

    Red Sox Place Hunter Dobbins On 15-Day IL Due To ACL Tear

    Astros Promote Brice Matthews

    Red Sox Likely To Activate Alex Bregman Tomorrow

    Phillies Reportedly Targeting Controllable Relievers

    Yankees Prioritizing Pitching, Also Searching For Infield Help

    Orioles Trade Bryan Baker To Rays

    Yankees Release DJ LeMahieu

    Trevor Williams To Undergo UCL Surgery

    Nationals Fire PBO Mike Rizzo, Manager Dave Martinez

    Brewers Activate Brandon Woodruff

    Clarke Schmidt Expected To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

    Bobby Jenks Passes Away

    Braves Release Alex Verdugo

    Top 40 Trade Candidates For The 2025 Deadline

    Rays Reinstate Ha-Seong Kim

    Yankees Have Shown Interest In Ryan McMahon

    Royals Interested In Bryan Reynolds

    Rangers Option Josh Jung

    Kevin Pillar Announces Retirement

    Braves Place Spencer Schwellenbach On IL With Elbow Fracture

    Recent

    Royals Receiving Interest In Catching Prospects

    J.C. Escarra Drawing Trade Attention

    Cristian Javier Begins Rehab Assignment

    Multiple Teams Showing Interest In DJ LeMahieu

    Rafael Devers Suffering From Disk Injury In Lower Back

    Mets’ Dedniel Nunez To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

    Trade Deadline Outlook: Seattle Mariners

    Reds Activate Jake Fraley, Option Christian Encarnacion-Strand

    Red Sox Place Hunter Dobbins On 15-Day IL Due To ACL Tear

    Cubs Select Brooks Kriske

    MLBTR Newsletter - Hot stove highlights in your inbox, five days a week

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • Sandy Alcantara Rumors
    • Luis Robert Rumors
    • Alex Bregman Rumors

     

    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android App Store Google Play

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Remove Ads, Support Our Writers
    • Front Office Originals
    • Front Office Fantasy Baseball
    • MLBTR Podcast
    • Trade Deadline Outlook Series
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Guardians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • RSS/Twitter Feeds By Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

    hide arrows scroll to top

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version