The Padres have placed backstop Francisco Mejia on the 10-day injured list, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced by Austin Allen on the active roster.
Mejia is said to be dealing with an oblique strain. The severity isn’t yet apparent, but it seems likely to put the remainder of his season in jeopardy. While the youngster is optimistic of a quick turnaround, as AJ Cassavell of MLB.com tweets, the club will surely exercise caution. With just a month left to go, Mejia would have to bounce back rather quickly in order to see any further action in 2019.
If this is the end of the line for the current campaign, it’ll still go down as a reasonably successful one. The 23-year-old has bounced back from a dreadful start to the year with a strong second half, leaving him with a solid .263/.315/.439 slash over 222 plate appearances. He has graded well enough behind the plate.
Clearly, there’s still room to improve for a player who once rated as one of the game’s top prospects. But it seems fair to say that things have been headed in the right direction. Just how the Friars will handle the catching position for 2020 isn’t yet clear. The club could continue to platoon Mejia and Austin Hedges, though the latter has endured a miserable offensive campaign. It’s also possible that Mejia could be handed the reigns to the starting job with a veteran backup brought in to supplement him.
i may not be a Pads fan, but just non-tender Hedges already. he’s terrible.
You’re drunk. Go home. He may not be able to hit. But best defensive catcher in baseball. Not someone you non-tender. Have him teach Mejia how to play D
I wonder if a catcher in Hedges’ position might balk at helping a guy trying to take his job. Or even give him bad advice to sabotage him.
Hedges spent the 2nd half doing just that while Mejia was starting 60% of the games. Mejia didn’t seem to improve at all as a catcher. I would bet if you went at looked at the stats, he got worse at framing, blocking, and probably throwing as well. The pitchers have a 5.01 ERA in his games. I hope he was not worse than that early in the year.
At the very least he’d draw some trade interest
I will take Hedge, his defense is top notch.
Hedges has to hit higher than his weight, we have three easy outs in this lineup and Hedges, Urias and Myers all stink none are hitting their weight..
Allen or Hedges? Mejia sure learned how to hit the second half
Mejia seems to have a halfway decent bat for a catcher. .265 with a .754 OPS and 98 OPS+. Just below average. Keeping his bat in the lineup for an offense as anemic as theirs seems like a no brainer. As a catcher he leaves a lot to be desired. The Padres are 21-28 in games with a 5.01 ERA in games Mejia started at catcher. The Indians seemed to have gotten it right when they tried to move him off of catcher. When I played I would not have wanted him behind the plate for the games I started. He can’t do the things I found important in a catcher. Namely, block pitches in the dirt, frame pitches, and be able to work the plan we put together before I took the mound in a start. If they are going to keep Mejia, the Padres need to consider a full time move for him to the OF if they can move Myers or Renfroe in the offseason.
Tell you what, if Torrens was still considered a prospect (he’s not because of 2017) he might be ranked ahead of Campusano. He’s far more advanced defensively and he’s shown at Amarillo that he can hit. That said, he’s also three years older.
Torrens was always thought of as a glove first catcher. If he is hitting in AA, that is a great sign for the Padres. With Allen, Torrens, and Campusano that seems to be a position of strength for them. They have no need to play a defensively challenged Mejia at catcher.
It would be nice if there was some kind of ranking of farm systems that included guys that have already played in the majors to give fans a better indication of system depth.
Thank you Johnny Superscout
We should trade Hedges in the off season. Let Mejia and Austin Allen compete in 2020; we have serious depth at the catching position, especially with the breakout season from Luis Campusano (.908 OPS in A+ ball) who is on his way to becoming an elite catching prospect in the near future.
Luis Torrens, Blake Hunt, and Logan Driscoll (2019 2nd rounder) round out our catching depth so I would have no problem moving Hedges. He can’t hit, plain and simple. Using win/loss records and ERA to evaluate catchers is useless. Hedges has been our primary catcher for the past 3 years and we have been trash for 3 years. We are losing games because we can’t score runs, not because we don’t have an elite defensive catcher.
NL needs to adopt DH. Would help Padres. Myers and Mejia would both benefit.
Amen. Would help the Cubs as well.
Does it really matter who is the C. This team is no better than last year and with a payroll that is higher than its been in years I’d say the Rooks drafted by AJ are not doing much if anything. It all comes down to SP and middle relief and we are sorry in those areas.
I see next year a do or die for Green either they make the playoffs or he’s gone. AJ hopefully will trade for two SP’s this off season. Trade Myers, Renfore, three pitchers either Hedfes or Mejia. We don’t need anymore prospects get some regular SPs in here.
Padre fans still don’t get Myers and his 68 mil owed is worthless
Hey. If the DH comes to the NL they could hit for Hedges.