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Padres To Sign Allen Craig

By Jeff Todd | January 22, 2018 at 9:47pm CDT

The Padres have inked a minors pact with veteran first baseman Allen Craig, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter). The contract includes an invitation to MLB Spring Training, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets.

Craig, 33, will be looking to get his career back on track after a disastrous tenure with the Red Sox. That three-and-a-half-year run mercifully ended when Craig was released over the summer. He had not joined another organization in the interim.

At the start of the 2014 season, Craig was a star with the Cardinals, carrying a .850 OPS through three full MLB campaigns. Since that time, he has appeared in just 162 games, struggling both before and after the mid-2014 trade that sent him to Boston and posting a cumulative .573 OPS.

Craig has not seen the majors since 2015. He has also been limited at times by injury. But his struggles have generally continued in the upper minors. Last year, at Triple-A, he managed only a .253/.352/.316 slash through 182 plate appearances before he was cut loose.

Certainly, expectations will not be high in San Diego, but perhaps a new environment will give Craig some chance at finding his form. His contract is no longer a factor; the Sox are paying him a $1MM buyout on the 2018 option that was included in the deal that he originally signed with the Cards.

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View Comments (58)
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58 Comments

  1. KCelts

    8 years ago

    That lisfranc injury totally shot his career. Sad because he was so good here in St. Louis. I hope he can latch on in San Diego.

    3
    Reply
    • fasbal1

      8 years ago

      He had 2 year stretch of hitting extremely high with runners in scoring position. It’s possible this is what he needs to revive. hope he revisits success..

      1
      Reply
    • bigcubsfan

      8 years ago

      This just in: Cubs in “serious talks” with Yu Darvish about a contract.

      2
      Reply
      • bravesandcrewfan

        8 years ago

        Shut up dude I’d be fine with darvish to the Cubs and idk if it’s always you but it seems like everytime I look at an article there’s a comment talking about news that darvish is closer to signing with the Cubs and its largely baseless. Nothing against you just sick of seeing it.

        6
        Reply
        • bigcubsfan

          8 years ago

          It isn’t baseless, I’m just the first to report a deal might be close. Will update when there are more details about the contract / other major news sources are reporting it.

          2
          Reply
        • bigcubsfan

          8 years ago

          See, look at the first story of mlbtr updated just now. (I got the sources.)

          1
          Reply
        • paddyo furnichuh

          8 years ago

          “I’m the first to report!” roflcmp

          4
          Reply
        • mvpetro

          8 years ago

          Congrats you live on Twitter

          1
          Reply
      • CursedRangers

        8 years ago

        Yep – looks like Darvish to the Cubs has serious legs. He would be a good fit for them.

        1
        Reply
        • CursedRangers

          8 years ago

          Reports are popping up over the last 30 minutes in multiple places. Might be an interesting sports day tomorrow. LeBron hits 30k points, and a major free agent signs.

          Reply
      • dvail1979

        8 years ago

        All this cuz the Cubs signed his personal catcher from 2014?!?!

        4
        Reply
        • Paul Molitor

          8 years ago

          If I could “like” a comment, I would like this one

          Reply
        • 24TheKid

          8 years ago

          You can upvote comments on the website…

          3
          Reply
      • DonKieballs

        8 years ago

        Cubs fans are the worst. 90 % of them aren’t from or haven’t even been to Chicago. They are mostly bandwagon fans who 4 years ago were Red Sox fans.

        5
        Reply
        • pullhitter445

          8 years ago

          I live in Chicago and am a white Sox fan but a majority of the state is cubs fans. While I’ll say several of them have minimal knowledge about baseball and rarely can hold a baseball conversation about even there own organization there are a ton of cub fans here.

          1
          Reply
        • 37santobanks

          8 years ago

          Ahh yes, been a minute since I have seen a “let’s grossly overgeneralize an entire fanbase” comment.

          Reply
        • Vedder80

          8 years ago

          Majority of the state? Most everyone South of Bloomington cheers for the Cardinals.

          Reply
        • jumsy

          8 years ago

          A majority of the “state” are Cubs fans? Have you ever traveled south of I-74, let alone I-80?

          Reply
        • CardsNation5

          8 years ago

          Wrong! Majority of Illinois are Cardinals fans! Lbvs

          Reply
    • gomerhodge71

      8 years ago

      I’m rooting for him. Perhaps the change of scenery will help.

      Reply
  2. batteryoutlet

    8 years ago

    right when I was complaining about no action during the off-season the padres have to make look stupid.

    9
    Reply
    • Travis’ Wood

      8 years ago

      It’s a minor league deal buddy. Not possible for those to be stupid.

      2
      Reply
      • Michael Chaney

        8 years ago

        He’s being sarcastic about the Padres making him look stupid by making a move, not calling the move itself stupid

        10
        Reply
      • EndinStealth

        8 years ago

        It’s so funny when people don’t understand sarcasm.

        Reply
  3. brewcrew08

    8 years ago

    Amazing how many chances 2 good years in the bigs can get you

    1
    Reply
    • wrigleywannabe

      8 years ago

      This is his first second chance and it’s minors deal

      4
      Reply
      • HubcapDiamondStarHalo

        8 years ago

        There might be an argument that the Red Sox were his first second chance. I can NEVER look down on somebody who tries to regain the magic. Hope he does well in San Diego.

        1
        Reply
  4. manos

    8 years ago

    Finally some real action!

    1
    Reply
  5. xabial

    8 years ago

    Yay. Get better soon Allen Craig.

    Lisfranc injuries are serious, but not impossible to overcome.

    In the NFL: Eric Decker, suffered a Lisfranc injury, during his time as a college football player at the University of Minnesota, in 2009, and came back from it, provided All-Pro caliber seasons, to the Broncos, and NY Jets.

    4
    Reply
    • xabial

      8 years ago

      Decker was still drafted in the third round of the 2010 NFL draft, and the rest is history. (Extremely productive NFL Wideout, Career: 53 touchdowns, 5,816 yards in NFL)

      3
      Reply
      • xabial

        8 years ago

        I don’t get, why thumbs down?

        This is an extremely rare injury.

        Other sport, irrelevant (I guess.. :/ )

        5
        Reply
    • Padres Armchair GM

      8 years ago

      Leveon Bell also suffered a Lisfranc Injury….hasn’t slowed him down one bit.

      Typically, Lisfranc injuries seem to burden taller athletes……although I’ll never forget Wang suffering a Lisfranc injury when he was batting in the NL as part of the Yankees crossing home plate.

      Very interesting study was conducted on NFL lisfranc injuries. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0363546516645…

      “The study group was composed of 28 NFL athletes who sustained Lisfranc injuries during the study period, including 11 offensive and 17 defensive players. While 2 of 28 (7.1%) players never returned to the NFL, 26 (92.9%) athletes returned to competition at a median of 11.1 (interquartile range [IQR], 10.3-12.5) months from time of injury and missed a median of 8.5 (IQR, 6.3-13.0) regular-season games. Analysis of pre- and postinjury athletic performance revealed no statistically significant changes after return to sport after Lisfranc injury.”

      2
      Reply
      • brucewayne

        8 years ago

        Didn’t Pujols suffer from this kind of an injury for a couple years before having surgery to repair it?

        Reply
  6. lowtalker1

    8 years ago

    Where you at Ryan

    4
    Reply
    • padreforlife

      8 years ago

      Chatroom

      Reply
      • AndThisGameBelongsToMySanDiegoPadres

        8 years ago

        hurrrrr da durrrrr
        *fart noises*

        Reply
  7. rizdakc99

    8 years ago

    Brad Hawpe says hi.

    2
    Reply
  8. Jkolti

    8 years ago

    Guess the Padres don’t need hosmer now. (Sarcasm)

    6
    Reply
  9. stollcm

    8 years ago

    Seriously? You are probably the same guy that would be whining about why they are giving him a 25 man spot and they should just bury him in the minors since the Sox have such deep pockets. Good lord dude, get real.

    Reply
  10. agentx

    8 years ago

    Vedder80 is totally right. Stop making baseless accusations.

    A significant factor in recent MiLB “burials” affecting players such as Craig and Rusney Castillo among others is the fact that the multi-year guaranteed contracts of players outrighted off the 40-man roster do not figure into the total used to determine whether a given team has gone over the luxury tax.

    3
    Reply
  11. LarsLap

    8 years ago

    Now we can put an end to all that Hosmer talk.

    1
    Reply
  12. 619bird

    8 years ago

    He went to school about an hour away in Murietta. Dude had a huge sign on his High School ball diamond as World Series Champion. So there’s a link.

    I dont know if he can make it back but I liked the guy and hope he can at least have a cup of coffee like Brett Wallace had in San Diego and hang it up. If not he made some nice coin for basically nothing the rest of his career. More than enough to roam the wineries in Temecula and spend his winters in Palm Springs. Lol

    1
    Reply
    • padreforlife

      8 years ago

      Brett Wallace was horrendous

      Reply
      • AndThisGameBelongsToMySanDiegoPadres

        8 years ago

        One potato two potato three potato four

        Reply
  13. bleacherbum

    8 years ago

    Nice low risk move by Preller. Let the staff over here see what they can do with him. If Pirela struggles, Jankowski continues to not hit,

    Reply
    • bleacherbum

      8 years ago

      And if Dickerson isn’t 100 percent, that leaves LF very uncertain. Franchy is having a nice winter ball in the Dominican right now but even he isn’t a sure thing, Craig is a good no-risk guy that you Bring into the organization with hopes that you catch lighting in a bottle, maybe Matt Stairs can tweak something with him to start producing results again, would be a nice story if he got his once bright career back on track.

      Reply
    • padreforlife

      8 years ago

      “Continued not to hit” he’s never hit except maybe at CW Post

      Reply
  14. Padres Armchair GM

    8 years ago

    Buy low bench piece possibly. Give Myers a day off here and there. Or platoon with Jankowski, Cordero, Dickerson if the Padres wind up trading Pirela to a team looking for a 2B/OF (Brewers, Mets come to mind).

    Reply
    • padreforlife

      8 years ago

      That’s an OF for ages

      Reply
  15. dvmwitt

    8 years ago

    Maybe coming back to his ‘home town’ will put some air under his wings. Love driving by Winchester high and seeing his name on the field. Hopefully he can turn things around and make it to SD in the near future.

    1
    Reply
  16. mikep2k

    8 years ago

    I went to a lot of Pawtucket Red Sox games. As an Orioles fan living in Rhode Island it’s not always easy but I love baseball and minor league games are cheap.

    Going to the games, the PAWSOX would bat Rusney Castillo leadoff followed by Craig. I loved telling the fans around me that the #1 and #2 hitters on their AAA team combined to make $18 million.

    This was usually after them talking crap about how smart the Red Sox are.

    Reply
  17. joefriday1948

    8 years ago

    Fans are elated Allen may sign with the Padres, We all remember his great grandfather, Melvin and what he did for the Yankees.. The key acquisition would be Colton Welker, a gem in the making, hiding in plain sight behind a big Rock

    2
    Reply
  18. holecamels35

    8 years ago

    I remember having to always see him play against the Pirates and man he was locked in at the plate. I thought he’d be good for a while, hoping maybe he has a bit of magic still left.

    Reply
  19. sigdawg25

    8 years ago

    i thought we were discussing Allen Craig? What’s up with all the Cubs stuff? By the way what did happen to Allen Craig?

    Reply
  20. yankeesfan20

    8 years ago

    Red sox great Allen Craig haha

    Reply
  21. padreforlife

    8 years ago

    Sure he’s “good clubhouse guy” lol

    Reply
  22. BSPORT

    8 years ago

    Happy to see Craig moving on to a good team. Red Sox seem to have a knack at ruining good players.

    Reply
  23. padreforlife

    8 years ago

    Good team?

    Reply

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