The Padres have agreed to a minor-league deal with righty Jerad Eickhoff, the former Phillies hurler recently told Aaron Hancock of Indiana’s 14 News. Eickhoff adds that he received an invitation to participate in the MLB side of Spring Training.
Now 29 years of age, Eickhoff broke into the majors with aplomb back in 2015. He was again effective in the ensuing season, when he threw 197 1/3 innings of 3.65 ERA ball with 7.6 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9. To that stage of his career, Eickhoff seemed like he’d be a solid rotation piece for years to come for the Philadelphia organization.
As it turned out, things would turn south from there. Eickhoff dipped in 2017, with a 4.71 ERA over 128 innings, which he accumulated while dealing with a variety of injury issues. The health problems continued in the following campaign, with a lat injury turning into numbness in his fingers that was eventually diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome.
Eickhoff has worked hard to get on the bump as much as possible, but he has managed only 63 2/3 MLB innings over the past two seasons. And though he managed a useful 62:18 K/BB ratio in that span, Eickhoff was tagged for 19 home runs. He also struggled in minor-league work in 2019.
The Padres will try to help Eickhoff rediscover his former promise. Tamping down the persistent hand issues will obviously be a key. At worst, Eickhoff figures to function as experienced depth; perhaps there’s also a glimmer of upside remaining for him and the San Diego organization. Padres GM A.J. Preller is amply familiar with Eickhoff, having helped draft the hurler in his former capacity as assistant GM of the Rangers.
I liked him in Philly and wish him good health and luck !
agreed. shame to have let him go with the roster the way it is though.
He is a nice guy but he’s not a rotation piece. All he did was hang the curve ball and then try to spot his fast ball which is flat as can be. He has a live arm but can’t pitch. He’s a thrower and will be out of baseball in 2 years.
Ouch.
Sounds like Bryan Mitchell all over again. Only cheaper.
They took on Chase Headley’s salary to add Mitchell. This guy didn’t even get a guaranteed roster spot. There is no comparison.
The comparison is Preller’s history. This guy has the added connection of being a Ranger.
+1 He’s a grinder with a couple of good pitches who could not escape the limitations of his body. Hopefully he bounces back. He peaked when he had plus command but that seemed to escape him when he went through the thoracic outlet thing and the numbness. Good luck Eick!
New Brad Hand type project?
Nah hes a starter. He’s fly ball tendencies will play well in that park if he makes the roster as a 5th starter or swingman. When healthy, Eickhoff can provide quality innings from the back end. Like this signing a lot for SD. Gives them some depth in case they trade from their deep starting pitching prospect capital.
Brad Hand was also a starter when the Padres grabbed him.
Facts
Turned Hand into Mejia wow
Was that an intentional carpal tunnel pun, Kevro2139?
Damnit…. no, I wish I could say it was.
Hand wasn’t a “project.” He was a starter with only 2 pitches. He was built for the bullpen, but the Rays didn’t see it. Fortunately, Padres did.
World Series, here we come!!
No offense Jerad.
Good move. Any time you get a young guy that’s had some MLB success on a minor league deal it’s a risk worth taking
Hopefully. For now, this just likes like another Preller-esque signing. Note that he went back to his Rangers well.
Good low risk move for a team looking for production from the back end. Still need an ace or TOR arm.
Maybe a rare prospect prospect for prospect swap Like
Braves get Luis Patino and Hudson Potts
Padres get Kyle Wright or Ian Anderson and another pitcher like Weigel.
Padres get an arm who’s ready almost immediately while braves pick up an arm who’s 2 years away.
I have no idea why the Padres would do that. Not that rankings mean much, but Patiño is currenly #30 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100, right ahead of Wright and Anderson, so they’re essentially on the same tier. Fangraphs grades Patiño and Wright both as 55FV guys and Anderson is right behind them as a 50. So the Padres would be trading a known player the internal evaluators love for an external guy who’s maybe a year closer to MLB but not nearly as known… plus a toss-in. Maybe this helps the 2020 rotation but it seems like a short-sighted move unless there’s reason to want to move Patiño. I personally love that kid, I’ve seen him pitch, I’ve seen how he interacts with his teammates, I’ve talked to him in various settings, and the kid is special. So I don’t want to move him unless it’s for an overwhelming price.
All that said, this kind of lateral move with high-end prospects doesn’t happen often, and especially between guys who play the same position. If the Padres had a stud SS who’s blocked by Tatis and the Braves had a similarly talented stud CF who’s blocked by Pache, we could entertain this conversation but that’s not the case here.
Patino is close to 2 years away, at best 1 but that’d be rushing him. Padres clearly are trying to improve in 2020.
Who knows how Wright/Anderson vs. Patino will go long run.
All 3 have TOR upside.
Point of the trade is Padres need an immediate TOR solution for 2020 and 2021.
By the time Patino is ready to contribute Pham, Yates are FAs plus that’s 2 years added to the clock of Paddack Tatis Jr and others.
IDK why we wouldn’t think Patino is on the same path as Paddack, and what we expect of Gore this year… short/half season stint in AA, then a shot at the Majors. He could be a late season call up this year, or a shot at the rotation next Spring.
Also – Braves are in more of a win now mode than the Padres, why would they be interested in taking a step back like this?
Braves have a lot of mlb ready arms. Soroka wright Anderson wiegel.newcomb touissant folty Wilson to name a few
Moving 1 for a piece down the road is how teams stay productive.
Nothing stops them from keeping Wright, Anderson, or any of these other guys in AAA/AA for a full year. Moving a piece that is already a down the road piece, for a slightly further down the road piece (maybe), isn’t keeping you productive much longer.
Depends how the Kris Bryant grievance plays out. Doubt he wins but if by some miracle he actually wins it sets a precedent that Kyle like Anderson or Wright could file as well.
That is not at all true. Bryant’s grievance was due to them calling him up the day his service got delayed. Keeping a player in the minors for a whole year would not be the same type of issue. this is more of a vlad type issue, than a Bryant one.
Paddack was an outlier. Most rookies, regardless of prospect rankings and scouting reports, struggle in their rookie years. Patino is far more likely to struggle than not. Contrary to wishful thinking, he’s two years away.
The rare pitching prospect for pitching prospect trade.
Don’t trade Patiño. He’s probably going to be really good.
When he returned last season, his velocity was barely breaking 90mph and his curveball wasn’t fooling anyone. I was hoping he’d return to being a mainstay, but his injuries helped lead to the current state of the Phillies rotation.
Now that man looks like a serious MLB pitcher!
Hope it works our for him!
Omg!
Padres going their #1, Preller is a genius
He is just the worse lol
Good move low risk, but Padres rotation still needs work if they’re gonna compete. Solid pitchers one could argue atm, but not a top 3 like most teams have when they make the playoffs. Although Paddick and Joey are good or decent, those were their rookie years and usually when you have a good first year, you tend to decline slightly or more on your subsquent years since hitters have seen your stuff previously. Ideally Richards will do good but is coming of TJ surgery and pitched an 8.31 era despite not pitching much in 2019. Davies seems solid, but he was backed by a potent Brewers offense which seems to still have an upper hand imo compared to the Padres lineup. If we could trade or get one more SP at least, not necessairly overspending, that would greatly help. I’d give Lament a solid or B rating because of his stuff, but not Ace so far because of a lack of control, like Richards. Our offense looks better off than our pitching so far, therefore i think pitching needs more work. so far there arent many decent FA SP availble, but Aaron Sanchez might be a good low risk investment, but trade seems inventiable. Good luck pads (and please don’t tell me this is your complete offseason overhaul 🙂
Holy cow where to start…
Maybe we can start by spelling Paddack and Lamet properly.
Next, Lucchesi was a rookie in 2018. 2019 was his second year in the majors so whatever sophomore slump you’re referring to is behind him.
Richards is certainly a question mark, but please don’t hang an ERA on three appearances in a season when he wasn’t even expected to see MLB action.
Mackenzie Gore should contribute to the 2020 rotation and there is much more depth than the 2019 version, so we should see few bullpen games if any.
Davies is an improvement over Lauer however you want to slice it.
The bullpen is greatly improved, so there should be a little less pressure on the starting rotation.
Finally, you pointed out how the Brewers’ offense was more potent than the Padres’. This should be the real focus. I just outlined several reasons why the pitching staff should be at least a little better than the 2019 version, but the real problem was that the Padres scored less runs than anyone other than the Marlins, Tigers, and Giants. While the Padres needed to improve their pitching, the real problem is on the offensive side of the game.
Mackenzie Gore will not contribute in 2020. If he gets called up before September, that’s just further evidence that Preller knows nothing about ML pitching and development.
Yea so then mabye its more like another setup year for the Padres? They said they wanted to “compete,” but in reality their real year to compete could be 2021 and beyond because I personally still see holes with their SP and mabye a few offensive replacements, along with other prospects. I just hope its not like 1 year or half a year to compete like they did a while back when signing Upton, Kemp, Norris, etc. Even sigining all those decent players at the time, they should give the managers some slack. They’re gonna need more than a year to settle down with their respective players and coaches, but we’ll see. The offseason isnt over yet though, even though it feels like it.
Preller certainly intends to compete this year or he wouldn’t have traded for Profar.
I see. Hopefully if thats the case its not a do or die year, or we finish with a decent record/wild card birth and we’re given another year or so in case this one doesn’t work out.
Profar wow he’s difference maker omg
Profar? Wow. Why don’t you just go all-in and declare Grisham, Pham, and Davies the core of the team?
Yeah, another “setup year.” This is Preller’s 6th full year. The stated goal LAST YEAR was .500 ball. If the Pads don’t win this year (>85 games), Preller is gone.
yea I hope not. I really dont think the current depth chart for the Padres will be sufficent enough however. You could make moves at the deadline, but I’d rather get those players early on, or at least one or two more, but we’ll see.
Whoa, where do I start? Since you wanted to go down that path instead of just skipping straight to your actual argument, Anyway…
When I checked Lucchesi stat’s on mlb.com, it only displayed his totals in 2019 and then his overall total’s as a player, which is weird, because often times it will display stats by year, 2018, 2019, etc.
In my previous post about Richards, I clearly stated he was a question mark and that I was still concerned not just because of his ERA, but also him coming off TJ surgery. I also stated that he only had a few starts, and hence was a question mark and not a guarantee either way.
I think Gore is going to be good too, but why wait till when half the season is over? Nor is there any guarntee that he will play this year. All Im asking for is at least one more solid SP, ideally not overpaying, but a potenial Ace that has some experience under his belt. Someone we can count on right away and not mid season. Paddack is good, but too early to be called an Ace imo.
Davies is an improvement, but not an Ace either. Mabye a 3-4 starter. And yes he was backed by a potent offense, which probably helped his performance. When you’re 1-7 guys can hit, that helps. Having Aguliar, Huira, Moose, Grandal, Cain, Yelich, and even Braun/Thames is great, with most of the concern coming from SS, or Arcia. That 3.55 era last year, or 3.91 era total, would probably go into the 4.00’s if he pitched for a team like the Padres (last year) or marlins, O’s, etc.
Bullpen is good, but I didn’t really bring it up because I was more focused on the SP for the Padres. My only criticism is overpaying Pomeranz for one good year as a RP, and some of the others perhaps, but it still seems solid anyways. However, you need good SP and RP not just good RP to try and make it far in the playoffs, as we’ve seen the Rockies try and do, but haven’t gone too far for example. Top 3 starters, and actual top quality starters, is a minimum for me, or in the Padres case, one more solid SP in case the newer players or guy coming off TJ surgery doesn’t pan out.
Lastly, I thought the Padres this year, or at least so far, focused more of their efforts on offense than pitching. With Profar, possibly, but more importantly Pham. Their line of reasoning as to why they havent’ more offensive players thus far could be because they’ve already comitted to a 1B averging 20 mil but is actually acting more like a platoon hitter ( 1B market is saturated with offensive talent I don’t why a small market team would pay 20 mil yearly for that), 3rd is Machado, who we know is consistent, SS, Tatis seems to have promise and not just that but probably consistency like Vlad Jr., for years to come, Myers they wanted to salary dump, but can’t find a suitor so far, Margot is just average offensively, but a good defender with speed, and Mejia never got full time play and was a top prospect, which is a bad idea for me personally because he has poor plate disipline despite having good contact skills (look at guys like Brinson, Jones, Salvador, similar traits, but those guys threshold tends to be below .300 and mabye around the .280 mark. So yes we need some offensive work, but relying heavily on RP and then some SP isn’t gonna cut it. It all starts with SP, at least top 3. Or that one guy on top of the rotation, every 5 days you can count on to give u quality starts, who’s proven himself over time. After we take care of that, another C, OF, would be good or one over the other if we can’t afford both.
“Why wait until half the season is over” for Gore? Seriously? How about letting him get a full season in AA. Do you know how important AA is to a player’s development? Obviously not.
My response was towards Zippy not you. However, my point for Gore was not to use him in the beginning of the season, but to get a SP or two from the start instead of waiting till the deadline to trade for one or use him mid season instead. Our record could be better if we got a player right away instead of of playing the wait and see game. This is suppose to be our competitve year afterall.
Padre fans don’t care about spelling or common sense
These pitchers gotta lay off the video games, I don’t need to feel my hands, they do.
I do not trust anything AJ Preller does. Many more losses than victories.
I do not trust anything AJ Preller does. Many more losses than victories.
Preller the mush master
Yawn. AJ can’t get a significant deal done…back to the scrap heap. Boycott Petco. Fowler cleans house….Bochy comes next year.
They aren’t paying Bochy he’s in past move on