Padres pitcher Blake Smith has cleared waivers, according to Dennis Lin of U-T San Diego (on Twitter). The Padres will now return the Rule 5 Draft selection to the White Sox.
Smith, 28, was a second round pick of the Dodgers in 2009 The University of California product was in the Los Angeles organization until May 2015 when he was shipped to the White Sox for left-hander Eric Surkamp.
Last year, Smith split time between Double-A (with both Dodgers and White Sox affiliates) and Triple-A, posting a combined 3.23 ERA with 10.9 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9. When he was left exposed, the Padres pounced in the Rule 5 draft. However, he apparently did not do enough to compel the Padres to add him to the big league bullpen.
Darn, I was really hoping to see the Padres attempt to keep 4 Rule 5 guys at the same time.
The first of 3 to go back to their respective teams, Josh Martin has been getting rocked in spring training and Luis Perdomo has been getting hit around as well. Perdomo has never pitched above high A ball, so you can really see that big league hitters aren’t having a tough Ike figuring him out. The Cardinals are a smart organization, they wouldn’t let a guy like this slip through their fingers.. If they had any feeling that he was close enough to being ready they would have have kept him in their own camp and allowed him to compete for a spot instead of leaving him unprotected. Jabari Blash is the one guy I think will make the squad, his power is something you can’t ignore. He will strike out a bunch as well but for a team that really doesn’t have any power potential besides Myers, it would be smart to keep Blash especially since he is going to cost the Padres close to nothing to do so financially. Power is expensive these days in the game so it makes since to gamble on it with a guy like Blash who is going to be so affordable.
Blash should be kept
There’s only room for one outfielder in the Padres bullpen, and that Jon Edwards.