The Padres are set to promote top prospect Francisco Mejia from Triple-A El Paso, per Dennis Lin of The Athletic (Twitter link). MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell adds that while Mejia could eventually be shifted back and forth between catching and the outfield, he’s been catching in El Paso this season and will be used as a catcher in the month of September with the Padres.
Mejia, 22, was the lone prospect traded from Cleveland to San Diego in the July deal that sent both Brad Hand and Adam Cimber to the Indians. He’s long rated as one of the game’s top overall prospects and entered the 2018 campaign as a consensus top 20 all-around minor leaguer. While he had a solid but unspectacular run with the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate this season, he’s exploded for a .328/.364/.582 slash with seven homes, eight doubles and a triple in just 132 PAs with the Padres’ top affiliate since the trade.
The arrival of Mejia in San Diego will give the Padres a pair of catchers who were highly touted as prospects, though certainly Austin Hedges’ bat remains a work in progress. Hedges has improve upon last year’s overall production but is still hitting just .239/.292/.422 through 271 trips to the plate in 2018. Hedges is regarded as a premier defender behind the dish, though, even if his 22 percent caught-stealing rate is uncharacteristically low in 2018. The 26-year-old ranks as one of the game’s better pitch framers and sits 10th among MLB catchers in Baseball Prospectus’ Fielding Runs Above Average this season, even in spite of his unusual throwing troubles.
The San Diego front office likely views the presence of both Hedges and Mejia as a good problem to have. Neither will be expensive in 2019. Mejia, of course, will be a pre-arbitration player while Hedges will receive a small but notable bump in pay as a Super Two player in arbitration. It’s possible that the pair could shoulder the bulk of the Padres’ work behind the plate for years to come, with Hedges serving as a glove-first option with power but middling OBP skills, while Mejia provides a bat-first option with a terrific arm but a lesser all-around defensive reputation.
Mejia does already have a slight bit of MLB experience under his belt, having logged 12 games with the Indians from 2017-18 (just one this year). He’s totaled just over a month of big league service time and will finish out the season with roughly 60 days of big league service. That’ll keep him from reaching Super Two status in arbitration if he’s in the big leagues to stay. Currently, he projects to reach arbitration eligibility following the 2021 season, and he’d reach the open market as a free agent following the 2024 season. Further time spent in the minors could yet push that trajectory back, but it appears that he’ll be given the opportunity to prove that he’s learned all he has to learn at the minor league level.
I think the Padres will use this as a way to get a starting pitcher for him in a package deal.
Why so late to report? Saw this a bit ago
Why so early to criticize?
Because I rely on my notifications to pickup guys in fantasy 🙂
Matz for Mejia
So you’re a Mets fan?
I don’t see the Padres going for that. Maybe Myers for Hedges?
Would they do Meijia + Tatis for Degrom (or Syndergaard)? Mets would have to seriously consider something like that. Would give them an interesting young core of Alonso, Rosario, Tatis in IF, Meijia catching, and Conforto and Nimmo on the corner OF positions.
No way Padres are trading Tatis JR, they have no infield depth in the minors and need Tatis JR to be a core player not trade bait. If you look at the most likely pieces the Padres would trade in MLB top 100 it is
Francisco Mejia (20)
Chris Paddack (48)
Adrian Morejon (49)
Michael Baez (60)
Logan Allen (85)
I hope they keep some of the young prospects though until they are ready to actually compete. Making deals like signing Hosmer has slowed the rebuild vs expedite it lol
I’ll have seven of what you’re smoking my dude. You’re wayyyyy over-valuing your pitcher(s). Name a similar trade involving TWO top 20 prospects, including a top 3… hmmmmmm
Overvaluing? DeGrom is on track to win the Cy Young this year, has never had a bad season, and isn’t a FA until 2021. He’s literally one of the best pitchers in baseball.
I’m not saying it’s a fair deal, but there’s not a lot of precedent for returns of absolutely premier players.
Baseball prospects bust at a very high rate. DeGrom is a known commodity and already established as elite.
why would the padres trade the centerpiece of their rebuild, that they can control for 6 years, for a pitcher? Their eggs are in the tatis basket, not the degrom basket
You’re way undervaluing Degrom. Is of right now, he’s the best pitcher in baseball
Why would the Padres want 2 years of DeGrom more than they would want Tatis and Mejia?
I’m not saying you can’t get a Chris Sale return for him. But you’re not getting it off the Padres who are still rebuilding.
The Mets are ran so poorly that will not only never win with any of those pitchers on the roster but they will watch most of them leave via free agency. Just a garbage front office.
Tatis is the No. 2 prospect in baseball the Mets couldn’t get him off the Padres and there’s no way the Mets would have to “think” about that proposed trade. Teams don’t make trades like that.
I hate it when people make lopsided trade proposals that are completely unrealistic.
If deGrom is traded this offseason, it will include at least one prospect of Tatis’ caliber. However, it won’t be from the Padres. They are in no position to be trading controllable impact talent for a guy they would just lose after 2020.
2019 Lineup
LF Wil Myers R (29)
2B Luis Urias R (22)
SS Fernando Tatis Jr. R (20)
RF Hunter Renfroe R (27)
1B Eric Hosmer L (30)
3B ???
C Austin Hedges R (27)
P
CF Manuel Margot R (25)
Bench
C Francisco Mejia S (24)
C Austin Allen (25)
C Luis Torrens R (23)
1B Josh Naylor (22)
2B Jose Pirela R (30)
2B Carlos Asuaje L (28)
3B Christian Villanueva R (28)
3B Cory Spangenberg L (28)
SS Allen Cordoba R (24)
SS Javy Guerra L (24)
OF Franmil Reyes R (24)
OF Franchy Cordero L (25)
OF Travis Jankawski L (28)
OF Alex Dickerson L (29)
OF Buddy Reed S (24)
So this bench list is not of the players who I think will be on the 40 man roster, but a list of the players who I think we’ll be seeing throughout the season when players starts being demoted/promoted and players being put on the DL.
*The numbers next to the players name is the age they’ll be turning in 2019.
Old man Hosmer.
There’s no way Pirela is on the team in 2019
Then again he has like 425 plate appearances in 2018 so what do I know?
no love for Villanueva?
Villanueva would be a great platoon against left handed pitching, but I don’t think he’s worth starting as an everyday third baseman
Lol omg you guys are hilarious
Hedges sucks
I think padres trade Hedges.
Athletics Mets Nationals Astros i think all make sense as teams that would have interest in Hedges and his team control.
Hes one of the best defensive catchers so his bat where it is isnt all that concerning.
Still can’t believe the Cleveland Indians traded this guy. Could be a stud catcher for a long time.
They really needed bullpen help, so they got it. They didnt need lineup help, so they gave some away. It mightve been an overpay especially if Mejia proves to be really good but from the Indians side of things that trade filled a really big gap for them that is crucial for playoff success
9 years of RP (3.5 years of it being Hand) for 6 years of control on a player they do not have a position for, that was unwilling to increase his versatility (which created a public incident) and would not hold all that much value if out of position anyway
Fairly easy to see why they dealt him for the package they did
If he was a stud catcher they wouldn’t have traded him. His defense was overrated and he balked at playing elsewhere in order to be in the majors sooner.
Hope he is more impressive than Urias.
Hitting .200
Yep, most overrated minor league system in baseball.