As a consensus top three farmhand in baseball, shortstop prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. may be able to help the Padres from the outset of the season, but he’s no lock to make the team. After all, by keeping the 20-year-old in the minors until at least mid-April, the Padres would gain an extra year of control over him. Nevertheless, the Padres’ highest-profile player, Manny Machado, is hopeful Tatis will join him on Opening Day to comprise the left side of their infield, per Dennis Lin of The Athletic (subscription required). “If he’s in there, we’re going to be a dangerous team, and I think we’re all rooting for him to break camp with us,” said Machado, an experienced shortstop who’s set to hold down third base for the Padres after signing a 10-year, $300MM contract with them last month. Meanwhile, manager Andy Green isn’t ruling out Tatis for the Padres’ season-opening roster, but he cautioned: “In (Tatis’) case, he’s a couple months above Double-A ball. He’s had two incredibly slow Aprils that unbelievable seasons followed. “So, there’s some context there that we’re going to factor into the equation that other people probably aren’t.”
- As is the case with Tatis, Reds prospect Nick Senzel could be an early season victim of service time manipulation. Senzel’s also trying to learn a new position, center field, as he entered the spring with no game experience there. Already, though, “it’s become clear” Senzel has the ability to handle the position, manager David Bell said Sunday (via John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer). Regardless of whether Senzel’s in center for the Reds from the get-go, the 24-year-old seems like a good bet to see the lion’s share of time at the position for the Reds this year. Senzel’s customary spots – second and third – are spoken for, whereas there’s no established center fielder blocking him in Cincinnati.
- Although he only landed a minor league contract in free agency, first baseman Mark Reynolds is a near certainty to make the Rockies’ Opening Day roster, per Nick Groke of The Athletic (subscription required). If so, he’ll be the primary backup to first baseman Daniel Murphy, another offseason pickup for the club. The 35-year-old Reynolds was teammates with Murphy last season in Washington, where the former turned in a solid .248/.328/.476 line in 235 plate appearances after signing a minors pact with the Nationals in April.
- Braves right-hander Mike Foltynewicz has been down with elbow soreness, but it’s “expected” he’ll resume throwing Monday, Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweets. Foltynewicz isn’t on track to serve as the Braves’ Opening Day starter, but it appears he’ll be able to make his regular-season debut sometime during the first week of the campaign. The 27-year-old will attempt to build on a breakout 2018 showing in which he pitched to a 2.85 ERA/3.37 FIP with 9.93 K/9, 3.34 BB/9 and a 43.1 percent groundball rate over 183 innings.
if Folty isnt opening day who we going with…. teheran?? Lol please get kuechel
Gausman hopefully
Per Braves website:
“Asked to comment on the evaluation Dr. Gary Lourie made on Saturday, Mike Foltynewicz declined and walked away from his locker. But this seems to be a product of the Braves choosing to wait a few more days before clearing him to resume throwing.
Snitker simply said Foltynewicz will continue to undergo treatment. It hasn’t been determined when the hurler will be cleared to throw. The All-Star experienced right elbow discomfort after completing two innings during his spring debut against the Astros on Feb. 24.”
Doesn’t sound good to me, but at the same time sounds like ole Folty and how he deals with things..
Newcomb has been the most consistent starter in camp so far…for whatever that’s worth (admittedly, not much).
Duvall is going to prove bringing back Kakes was a misstep no matter how much of a bargain it was. He just needs to get comfortable, ABs, and his timing down because he definitely has the pop and the defense. (Love the box score today).
Keep it up Nukez and keep the freebies down this year and you’ll be fine!
Agreed that Duvall looked good today, but it was also the Marlins. It’s consistency Duvall needs though he has been putting together some good ABs. Kakes’ contract is a bargain and they have said it was worth it for depth alone. It is Duvall’s to lose if he keeps hitting.
Mark Bowman had this to say about Duvall on MLB.com. Is this an awkward sentence or what?
“But the two homers Duvall hit during Sunday’s 6-5 win over the Marlins enhanced both his confidence and the likelihood the Braves will continue to provide him a chance to prove he is capable of providing value to their bench during the upcoming season..”
Problem is he needs starts and consistency.. But NOW we have an unneeded issue of both him and kakes needing regular ab’s due to getting something for one at the trade deadline. Personally, I reallllly wanted to see what we’d get out of a full season of Duvall starting because I believe he can be an asset with plus thump and plus defense and I hope he earns himself the spot this spring.
Our offseason gets more laughable!
Braves would do well to trade Teheran to make way for some of the other arms cluttering up their 40-man.
That requires a willing partner.
worth asking the Padres
Nobody.wants.to.trade
for.Teheran.for.the.umpteenth.time.Not.even.the.padres.
Padres might for cash considerations or a PTBNL.
I don’t think we are going to acquire a SP, trade or otherwise. They have a lot of talented young pitchers they seem keen on letting compete for a spot.
Lucchesi
Lauer
Strahm
Allen
Paddack
Erlin
Mitchell
Nix
Kennedy
I would bet on Lucchesi, Lauer, Paddack, Allen, and Strahm making the starting rotation Opening Day.
James Shield and Dallas Keuchel pitched the same number of innings, allowed the same number of hits and struck out the same number of batters.
Dallas Keuchel is a contract that screams bad investment.
Holy cherry picked stats.
this is a travesty of statistic comparison
Please retort
Why is it a bad comparison? James Shields was a legitimately great pitcher, who’s skills regressed and became hittable.
Keuchel could very well go down that road too – heck, in 2016, he seemed to be halfway there already. And last year, that 1.314 WHIP was fortunate not to lead to a worse ERA.
Tom Glavine
Because it fails to mention that Shields also walked more batters (78 to 58) and gave up almost twice as many home runs (34 to 18).
It also makes no mention that Shields is 37 and was also a terrible pitcher in 2017 and 2016, while Keuchel is 31 and was a very solid #2/#3 pitcher the previous four seasons.
And it also fails to mention that the peripherals say that Keuchel (3.74 ERA, 3.69 FIP, 3.84 xFIP) is still a pretty good pitcher, while Shields (4.53 ERA, 5.09 FIP, 5.09 xFIP) is a genuinely bad one.
connorreed – we’re talking about Shields’ career path, not comparing their 2018’s. The whole point is that Shields went from great to garbage, and that could happen to Keuchel too.
If you’re going to argue a point, know what you’re arguing first.
But if you want to get into specifics, Shields from ages 30-32 (where Keuchel is right in the middle of) had FIP’s of 3.47, 3.47 and 3.59 (with even lower ERA’s.). And a track record behind it. He then fell apart and became awful a few years later – which is what I, and the OP, are alluding to.
Yeah and Alex Wood has the same career ERA as Randy Johnson. One of them is in the hall of fame and one just got given away to the reds for nothing.
Braves dont feel like a playoff team…
Well Braves hardly added anything in the winter. Now, a bunch of guys are sore and may not be ready. That off season approach may bite them in the ass.
Don’t players normally get sore in the spring?
I would sure think so, lots of muscles and tendons that haven’t been stretched to the max in months.
Couldn’t agree more esp after avoiding the injury bug last year..
You don’t sign a $100MM contract out of depth. If anything, a year further along with a rop-rated farm proves why they shouldn’t do as much. Riley, Pache and other positional prospects could be a better upgrade sometime in 2019 than most other overpaid guys, especially if getting guys with a contract like Kakes. Having swiss knives like Culberson, Camargo helps adding to Duvall (if he continues to play well), along with Florimon. Even the catchers (A-Jax) are having well and provide continued depth if something happens to McCann/Flowers, which is what we didn’t have last season.
Yeah its a good thing they have max fried and kyle wright and touki Toussaint and brice wilson and ian anderson and kolby allard and patrick weigel.
Tatis remaining in the minors makes much more sense then Vlad, though the service time manipulation makes complete sense. After all, Tatis did miss the whole second half last year and hasnt played at AAA yet.
Vlad needs to run a few laps. He’s got to condition better if he plans to play a 162 game season.
to be honest, it would make all the sense in the world, in my mind, for the Jays to try to send him down for a bit if you want him to continue to work on his defense, which is better done in the minors. If he can become a usable 3B, OF or something of the like, itll be worth more than a few more weeks or a month in the majors.
Watched some of the game against the Yankees today. Vlad defensively is not ready. Offensively yes.
Vlab Guerrero should be his new name. The extra weight is not doing him any favors moving around at 3B. His error today was partially due to his hefty stature. He needs to drop weight. This is not a good look for him or the organization.
No reason not to hold Tatis down for the first 15 days or whatever. I’d call him up once the Padres have that extra year of control banked tho.
Yep in the year 2025 that extra year for a superstar will be $40-50 mil a year
At least it’s not the position the Cubs were in with Bryant. We still need a couple of SP’s before we can be thinking those couple of weeks mean anything
The scary part is I can see them calling him up to start the season and throwing away the extra year of control. Something about “integrity” and “putting the best product on the field” or whatever.
Yaaa, it’s tempting for good PR, but is it worth that much?
Could send him down for a few weeks later in the season if he starts Opening day and still gain the xtra year of control.
The problem with that line of thinking is 1. They really can’t sent him back down after they’ve already called him up if he is playing well and 2. That would burn an option year.
Once Tatis is called up it is extremely likely that he stays.
Still waiting for a Coppy pitching acquisition that is actually good.
man I agree with the things that I’ve seen you post…but it comes across very doom and gloom lol. Here, eat a Snickers
Well, it needs to be said. At this point, the only reason this team is in the top 3 in most farm rankings is mostly due to quantity over quality.
The one guy I’m still holding out hope for is Touki. He is the one and only guy out of the bunch that can be an ace. I don’t want to say it is only ST but if he can’t throw strikes against minor leaguers and still gets supposedly nervous, then he has no hope.
Wright, Allard, Wilson and at this point Soroka, i already gave up on.
Then you get to the major league starters. I’ll be nice with my words this time. Get rid of Newcomb and JT already. The Braves will continue to milk these guys the same way they milked Sims and Wisler. Both are, were, and will always be trash.
Honestly, when writing all this i realize how terrible Copp was and it was a blessing in disguise that he is now gone. Honestly still bitter the garbage they got for Kimbrel and Upton.
The Squeaky wheels get the grease, fans should and need to be vocal esp if they’re not satisfied. Merica
Man I’ve never seen a more scorned fan. Newk is an above
Average young ML pitcher. Sorry he’s not a #1. But you could do worse for a #3 or #4. And you’re already giving up on the minor league arms? Tough crowd.
This is the year all of these pitchers arrive and your poo pooing them. They are all not year 5 sherzer yet? Oh no its over. I agree getting AA is a blessing. Folty is turning the corner right now. Newk could be doing the same. Touki, Soroka, Wilson, Anderson, Gohara, Weigel and…….what would be the point of “end of days’ as they arrive? They will not all work out. They will have good/bad starts…….when does this not happen? Braves are looking great.
Once the collective bargaining agreement is signed, the players take advantage of every loophole and the owners take advantage of every loophole.
It’s beyond crazy to have six years of a players service from 20 – 25, instead of seven years of a players service from 2-20 (minus three weeks).
Not only should owners hold them down, they would foolish not to.
if service time is not taken advantage of the entire front office should be fired.
If you have a team that is a serious playoff contender and feel you need one piece, and that piece you need performs well in ST, then you forego the extra season and bring him up. Otherwise you wait until you get that extra year. It’s smart business and it’s smart for the team.
Yes, but in most cases, for an additional year it is just holding a player down until mid April. No matter what, hold them down for 2-3 weeks, will not affect the season at all.
Sign Tatis to a 8 yr/$55m deal and put him on the opening day roster. Everyone gets what they want.
I like that idea!!!!
Yes!
If Tatis is willing to go for that then sure
I’m sure he takes the money. He will be a free agent at age 28 in line for a massive contract
Sign a player to an extension before he has seen more than a couple months of AA pitching?? I can only hope this was sarcasm…. come on now.
Obviously after he proves himself after a year bud. Nobody is crowning Tatis yet. Not even desperate Padre fans
Well then that is the complete opposite of what this post suggested bud. They said sign him to the extension and put him on the opening day roster… so they have him extended and don’t have to do the “service time manipulation” game. Yes, it would have to be after a year that he proves himself…. but this post suggested doing it now, so he could be on the opening day roster. Not smart at all.
Extending him will cost a lot more after a year when he has proven himself.
IF** you accidentally wrote WHEN
Kingery got $24 million before making it to the big leagues and he wasn’t even their best prospect. That hasn’t worked out at all but Tatis is on another level than Kingery.
Jon Singleton agrees
If i was him i would look at maybe 6 / 60 … it guarantees him money and gives the padres some salary consistencies. He will get probably half that in just last year of arb if he lives up to his billing.
I don’t even think it’s service manipulation with Tatis. He missed a lot of last year and has hardly played AAA. He’s good, no one’s projecting him to be Honus f’ing Wagner though. Keep him down all year for all I care. He needs to be seasoned as all get out by the time he gets to the show.
He hasn’t played any AAA yet.
Ok, who hits more HRs this year…Acuna or Soto?
That is 100% the correct thing to do with Tatis Jr right now. Don’t misinterpret the quote…. tatis is not “a couple months ABOVE double A ball”. Tatis has only played a couple months of AA ball, then got injured. And as was mentioned, his beginning in AA was horrendous until he made adjustments. He never played high A ball. So the correct statement would actually be “he’s only a couple months above LOW A ball”. Tatis doesn’t improve this pitching staff. There is absolutely nonsense in bringing him up right now. Let him go back down to the minors (not just until you gain control…. that’s like a month…. and he has historically been a slow starter in his seasons). But let him sit down there until June/July. Get him to see more advanced pitching for more than just a month. Let him work on pitch recognition so his strikeout numbers can hopefully go down…. because in the majors, that will get exposed. There is no need to rush him, at all.
Fully agree… Absolutely zero reason for him to be in the majors the first half of the year.
He is a slow starter because he has been fasttracking through the system. He adjusts to the new level of pitching, and then thumps. He won’t become a better ML hitter facing AAA pitching. But he does need to work on his defense. He does have quite a bit of throwing errors.
Fast tracking? He skipped one level, high A. His first full season with the Padres was in Low A ball and he struggled a lot to begin there. Not sure how that was fast tracking him?
Summer of Senzel-natti?
The writing has been placed on the wall by Green… He slumps in April. Aka we’re going to start him at AAA until enough time has passed
The ‘tegrity thing would be refreshing
The only thing that might hurt the Padres is that if they do think they can contend, which is possible, is that those are three weeks of games impacted by Tatis. If they miss a wild card spot by one or two games, you can almost certainly blame it on service time manipulation.
That scenario would stink…. but make no mistake, the Padres being in contention for a playoff spot this year is NOT possible. Usually when you head into a season and the only two known members of your rotation are second year players, both of which had era north of 4.0 last season…. and they are your only locks for spots in the rotation…. it’s not a good sign. 2020 is more likely
Answer this question what year are the Padres more likely to contend in: 2019 or 2025?
Inb4 neither
More likely? 2025. Easily.
Yup. So no reason not to hold Tatis down for the first 15 days of 2019. It won’t be the difference between him having a successful career and not.
He should be held down for more than just 15 days. It’s not just the service time, it’s the development of the player. He has played only a couple months above low a ball. Part of a season in AA then got hurt and missed the rest of the year. He needs to face more advanced pitching than low a ball for a period of longer than a couple months. Leave him down until June/July. Get him a good 200-300AB against advanced pitching before putting him against major league pitching. Tatis being sent down to start the year is NOT just for service control…. he isn’t MLB ready yet. He’s getting there. But 15 days isn’t all he needs.
Whatever, I want to see him just as much as anybody and aggressively promoting to the Majors worked just fine with Juan Soto last year. Obviously you at least need the extra year of control but once they have that I’d just give him his shot.
Guess it all depends how he is performing, really. Once they have that extra year of control, if tatis jr is hitting around .200 and striking out a ton (like he has to start the last two seasons)…. they absolutely should NOT call him up. If he’s lighting the world on fire…. sure. I guess. But it’s all gonna depend on how he’s doing
If it’s that obvious that Senzel can hold down the fort in CF, then it’s time for Scooter to get that three year extension…
I don’t see how one leads to another.
I’ve always felt that if they didn’t think Senzel could handle CF, then he would then be the next 2nd baseman. Which would explain why they haven’t given Scooter an extension up to this point.
“Service time manipulation” Well, doesn’t that have a negative connotation when it’s just following the rules? Strangely, it only seems to effect the guys who will be having future monster paydays anyway so cry me a river. As a fan I’d rather my team did it and had the guy an extra year.
Reds need to get it together. Just like all previous springs training. Why do they keep spending time running obviously players especially pitchers who cant pitch in the major league. I am not a coach but Aldeman, Reed, and Finnegan catch pitch. Let’s try to win. Winning breeds winning, we are already getting use to losing. Pitchers cant throw strikes, so we need to sign more starters. Ic not we will struggle to win 70 games after all the talk about our changing roster.