As part of a series of roster moves, the Padres have selected the contract of right-handed reliever Kazuhisa Makita from Double-A Amarillo. The club recalled catcher Francisco Mejia from Triple-A El Paso, optioned backstop Austin Allen and left-hander Nick Margevicius to El Paso, and transferred outfielder Franchy Cordero to the 60-day injured list in other transactions.
Additionally, Padres third baseman Manny Machado has been issued a one-game suspension “for aggressively arguing and making contact with umpire Bill Welke” in Saturday’s game in Colorado, but he will appeal, Bob Nightengale of USA Today was among those to report.
This is the first big league promotion of the season for the 34-year-old Makita, whom the Padres signed out of Japan to a two-year, $3.8MM guarantee in January 2018. The submarining Makita struggled to a 5.40 ERA/4.85 FIP last season in San Diego, in part because of a microscopic 20.2 percent groundball rate. While Makita did manage 9.51 K/9 against 3.09 BB/9, that wasn’t enough to prevent the Padres from designating him for assignment last November. Makita has since pitched to a 3.82 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9 in 35 innings at the Double-A level.
The recall of Mejia may be the most interesting move here, as he’s not far removed from a run as one of the majors’ best hitting prospects. Now 24, the Padres acquired Mejia from the Indians last June for relievers Brad Hand and Adam Cimber. Mejia hasn’t done much in the majors, though, which led the Padres to demote him to El Paso on June 1. But the Padres want more offense from behind the plate – something the light-hitting Allen and Austin Hedges haven’t provided – which explains their decision to bring the gifted Mejia back to the majors.
Machado, the Padres’ highest-profile player, may sit a game stemming from an ejection Saturday. He slammed his helmet to the ground and fired his bat against the backstop amid a heated argument with Welke.
Too bad Mejia isn’t in the AL where he can DH. Here in the NL, he has to actually learn how to field a position, too.
That’s called work. NLers work.
Yeah, even the pitchers they have to pick up a bat and try to hit the ball.
Then get hurt!
It’s called easy outs and stat padding for pitchers.
And then they move to the AL and get pounded.
Chris Davis
A Makita sighting? I almost forgot about him. If he gets the call from the pen Preller should have to escort him to the mound while burning dollar bills right on the field of play.
Maybe they called him up hoping some Japanese or Korean team wants to buy him back for some factory reconditioned electronics.
That’s another wasted $ deal from Preller
Yeah padres fans lost a lot of sleep over 3.8 mill. You seriously have nothing better to do in life than worry about what the Padres are doing as a non padres fan? Sad.
Just wasting $ is Preller favorite thing to do
Missed on Makita, hit on Yates. That’s just how it goes…
How come Baseball Reference and MLB show different/better minor league stats for Makita than what are listed in the article?
I think the author looked at the wrong line(s). The 5.40 ERA was his damage last year in SD. AAA/AA is in the high 3’s, which isn’t heinous considering the leagues..
Looking forward to that 60 mph ephus pitch from Makita. Smh
Don’t understand farming Allen out for Mejia. Allen was hitting decently in limited action and was a left-handed hitter off the bench. Mejia hasn’t hit at all in the majors and strikes out a ton. If they’re throwing in the towels and are going to play him every day maybe I’d understand this move more.
Me either, noone can ever figure out what the Padres are doing, they won’t ever play anyone long enough to know what they really have. For fun go back and look at articles from 2017 it’s full of question’s regarding who will play in the jammed up outfield. Margot? Renfroe? Myers? Dickerson? Cordero? LOL
Austin Allen is not “light hitting”…. nor is Mejía. Both are extreme “bat first” catchers. Allen has hit at every single level in the minors, as did Mejía. The problem is, when Allen and Mejía have been called up…. they barely get a chance to play because management continues to run Austin hedges out there 3 out of 4 games.
They expect everyone to produce in limited “Tough Love” at bats, like Renfroe. Not gonna happen.
Agreed. And Allen was hitting .262 and hedges was hitting .181
Which one is light hitting… yup.
Trade rumors…
With a young staff the Padres rightfully are valuing defense at the catcher position over hitting. Take a look at the WS teams of the last few years and you can see they did as well.
2017: Houston Astros Brian McCann 106 OPS+
2016: Wilson Contreras and David Ross 122 OPS+ And 106 OPS+ respectively.
2015: Sal Perez 88 OPS+
2014: Buster Posey say no more.
13: Saltlamacchia 120 OPS+
2012:Posey
2011: Molina
Survey says that’s a load of crap. It was easy to say that nonsense because the Red Sox did it last year. But that’s a load of crap that the last few WS winners did the same. Not factually accurate in the slightest. Looks to me as if most WS winning catchers can hit quite well. Most happen to be able to also field quite well also. Might have something to do with why their teams won a WS.
Yeah, that description of Allen makes no sense when you consider his entire career.
Yeah I’m not a Padres fan but from the outside looking in… it really seems like they need to give a legit shot to someone other than Hedges behind the dish. I understand his defense is great and all but he can’t hit a lick and they’ve got two young, promising offensive minded Catchers seemingly just waiting for an opportunity… hopefully Mejia gets a legit one this time around as he’s clearly tearing up minor league pitching so he’s earned the chance to get some legit ABs in the Majors to see what he can do!
Allen has done better on the defensive side than Mejia did, but certainly not as good as Hedges. Allen has started 10 and caught in 19 of the 32 games the team has played since his call up n May 11th. That is good for a backup catcher. Hedges has contributed more on defense than either one of these guys can on offense.
Mejia was battling a knee issue before being optioned. Let’s see if that might have been affecting his hitting. Also neither he nor Allen are incompetent behind the plate as seems to be the perception. Ive seen almost all of their ML jnnings and there is definite room for improvement, but if either hits at anywhere near what their track record suggests they are ML starters.
Was he battling that knee problem the last 2 years in the majors?
To use your word, Mejia is totally incompetent behind the plate. Over the past 2 seasons on defense he ranks 103rd of the 122 catchers that have appeared in the majors. He has had as many passed balls in 14 games for the El Paso team as 7 teams in the PCL have had in 68. He has thrown out 4 of 18 baserunners between the minors and majors this season. His pitch framing is atrocious. His catchers ERA is 0.40 higher than Hedges and 1.52 points higher than the other catchers the El Paso team has used. The only reason he plays is his bat. If he does not hit, he will not be in the majors long. If you are a Padres fan, hope he hits well enough this time around to be traded.
Hope the NL comes out of their brain fog and adopts the DH next year!
Chris Davis
134 plate appearances in MLB. Have you seen him play?
Machado was extremely hot. He was standing up for his pitchers. As a baseball fan I like that he’s being a good teammate.
Welke is a horrible umpire.
When you drill down into Makita’s stats they aren’t so bad. Makita just needs to drill the corners up & down and he’ll be fine.
Manny being Manny
Hard not to make contact with an ump who looks like he’s about 8 months pregnant. But I agree…Manny being exactly what you’d expect.