The Padres announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed infielder/outfielder Breyvic Valera off waivers from the Blue Jays. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, San Diego has placed right-hander Anderson Espinoza on the 60-day injured list. Espinoza underwent Tommy John surgery late last April.
Valera, 28, was designated for assignment earlier this week when Toronto finalized its one-year deal with reliever Rafael Dolis. Valera spent time with both the Jays and Yankees in 2019, though he appeared in just 17 games and took just 52 plate appearances. Overall, Valera has appeared in the Majors with five teams but played in just 54 games, hitting .223/.294/.298 in 138 trips to the plate.
Lack of MLB track record aside, the switch-hitting Valera is the owner of a .302/.374/.442 slash in 1550 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. Coupled with his defensive versatility –he’s played second base, third base and all three outfield positions — it’s easy to see why so many clubs have been intrigued by his skill set and taken brief looks at him. At this point, however, Valera has exhausted all three of his minor league option years, meaning he’ll need to break camp with the Padres (or another club) or else be traded or placed on waivers once again.
The shimmering jewel of the Machado deal.
Preller found another diamond?
Lol
Padres win the Machado deal like they won the will Myers James shields deal lmao.
LMAO the nitrites and fat from all those sausages have made me illiterate!
Keep it based on 2020 going forward, Friars make playoffs first time in ten yrs.
Really? I don’t think so, and I love my Padres. Outside of the bullpen, I don’t think we’ve improved.
Outfield has improved and we added a solid starting pitcher
James Shields deal– turned into perhaps the BEST player for this upcoming decade— Fernando Tatis Jr— so that James Shields signing (he gave us 1 1/2 solid years and then we traded him for Tatis Jr– is perhaps AJP’s finest moment
There’s no perhaps involved
Tatis was a 17 year old kid at the time with no professional experience and a famous dad who once hit two grand slams in one inning against the Dodgers. He had good athletic skills, but so do a lot of prospects that don’t make it.
It worked out very well, obviously. But I challenge the notion that this move was “genius” on Preller’s part
I completely agree. FTJ hadn’t even played in a professional game. Preller got lucky. Very lucky. But in hindsight, I’ll take it.
It’s not luck knowing his bloodline and seeing him that young it was clear to everyone he could be a star, probably few believed he’d be able to stay at ss or he’d have been paid more. $750,000 might not sound like a lot but it’s actually quite a bit for a 17 year old. It was lucky that he stayed healthy w/out lingering issues and maybe lucky that his hitting developed so well but these guys know what they’re doing. Kluber was a 23 year old pitcher in high A or so when he was the main piece to Cle from SD.
So … trades that don’t work out, he’s a dumbaxx who doesn’t know anything. Those that do work out (like Tatis)? He was lucky.
Got it.
Do you know the story of how they singled out Tatis in the Shields deal?
I assume not. Go look it up. They’d known about Tatis since he was 14. Good old fashioned hard work and scouting Tatis on the White Sox back fields in 2015 and 2016 … they saw something special. They targeted him, and when the opportunity came, they got him.
That’s not luck .
Then why disn’t they sign him the year before for a lot less? They ate millions on the Shields contract. He never played a professional game with the White Sox, so that crap abnout scouting him since he was 14 doesn’t ring true.
As with any other teenage prospect, they got lucky. All prospects are unknown quantities.
But even if you’re right, maybe Preller should just stick to scouting.
There’s always an element of luck. Baseball is replete with top prospects who either don’t make it, get injured, or get to the big leagues but don’t live up to expectations. Then there are other guys who seem to come out of nowhere and make it.
And having a baseball “pedigree” is certainly an advantage, but it’s no guarantee. See Pete Rose Jr. and Sean Burroughs, among others.
As has been said before. He could have not signed Shields and then traded someone else for Tatis if he wanted him so much. Or just outbid the White Sox to sign him in the first place 4 and a half yrs ago.
They tried. The White Sox had a deal with him when he was 14.
That’s BS. TOTAL BS. The Sox signed him the year before.
@csspackler they can’t make anything official until he is 16. So the simple solution would have been to just double what the White Sox were offering Tatis to sign him away.
I was so sure the Padres were going to do something like sign Bumgarner for 200m this winter.
Padres seem to win every deal or every move, yet have not sniffed a .500 record in a while. Their fans seem easy to please.
It’s because we seem to have a very vocal minority with low baseball IQs who believe every press release the team puts out about any player the team acquires. They’re myopic uber-homers, and it’s become even worse with Preller. Real Padre fans are sick of the BS, and have been for a long time.
So says the king of the barstool GMs.
I blame Leitner.
Hey, San Diego sports fans have it rough. We lost the Chargers a few years ago, lost two NBA franchises, have never had an NHL team and our baseball team has two pennants and no World Series championships in 51 years. In addition, the Padres are the only team in baseball without a single no hitter.
Mediocrity year after year. High profile signings that don’t work out. “Stars of the future “ who either wash out or get traded if they’re any good. It’s frustrating, but if you’re a true fan you stick with your hometown team and hope for better days ahead.
This is accurate. It’s been rough, but I love my Padres. One day. And I’ll be there to reap the fun.
Down with brown!
Royals are glad to be rid of Myers and Shields. We will see if the Dodgers end up regretting not outbidding SD for Machado but based on last year they can’t be too upset about it.
The Rays were happy to get rid of Myers, too. It’s well documented.
The only time the Dodgers regret not resigning Machado is when he’s taking Clayton Kershaw deep.
The Dodgers didn’t want Machado. He was a rental in 2018 because Justin Turner was on the DL.
If your going to chime it get your facts straight it was Seager that was hurt
Dodgers correctly passed on Machado. If they had him, they probably wouldn’t have Betts.
Tatis Padres killed Shields deal
What’s the deal with Espinoza? As a Sox fan I was disappointed when the Red Sox traded him for Pomeranz but he’s essentially been hurt since then… is the TJ surgery he had last April his 2nd? Or was the first long injury a shoulder/something unrelated… and is he expected to make it back this season? He had huge potential when he was first pitching in the minors — for his sake I hope he can bounce back and get things back on track as he was very talented even as a teenager.
he had two, the later being last year
It was his second TJ. Let’s also keep in mind that he hasn’t even pitched in AA yet. (I’ll have to check that; no more than a few games if he has.)
Was a top prospect when he came over from Boston but hasn’t been healthy in like 3 years.
He was a top prospect who was having problems adjusting to A-ball after being promoted from Rookie ball. There was never – and still isn’t – any guarantee that he would ever pitch in the big leages, let alone be an ace.
And now he’s got TWO TJs to overcome. The odds are against him.
You can never have too many versatile players who play IF and OF, we’ll see how it goes
Wait…are they sure this time?, we’ve already been duped once today with the Beckham nonsense.
I just felt the Earth move
It’s a side effect from the Preller Kool-Aid. It’ll pass.
San Diego really had a small earthquake late this afternoon!
Breyvic sounds like a medicine for something weird like making your eyelashes grow longer. I know, I know… that’s Latisse.
Depth,nothing more.
Playoff bound 2020 Padres
“Playoff bound 2020 Padres.” Do you mean that the Padres are going to go watch the teams who actually make the playoffs? Great, we have a good bullpen but beyond that Tatis, Paddack, and maybe Machado (if he remembers that he is a great hitter) we got appreciably worse over the off season. Our outfield is trash, and so is half of the infield and don’t forget the offensive black hole that is our catcher(s).
Playoffs in 2020? Maybe, all we need is about 6 good players in the field and 3 good starting pitchers not named Paddack. We get that and then you are allowed to think that we have a chance to make the playoffs.
Reality of 2020? Preller’s final season in San Diego, more rookies getting called up, and Jayce Tingler’s lone season as a MLB manager.
How is acquiring Pham, Grisham, Pomeranz, Profar and getting Cordero back not getting better? Or adding Johnson, Pagan and getting Castillo back not improving the bullpen?
Then you actually say worse?
Disagree. Strongly.
Vehemently.
Pierce Johnson is not an improvement. Neither are Grisham and Profar. Cordero has a great bat, but is a defensive liability of “Bad News Bears” proportions.
Our bullpen improved. Offense and defense got worse. Net loss.
Carl, lord of the San Diego Union Tribune Padres Forum, did you not read what I said? I mentioned that our bullpen was good (although we definitely overpaid for Drew Pomeranz) but our outfield was much better offensively last year before Preller blew it up by getting rid of Renfroe and my personal favorite current (at the time) player Franmil Reyes. Renfroe and Reyes were feeding off of each other and going dong at a good pace, no they weren’t ultra or even very good defenders, especially Franmil, but our lineup with them, Franchy, Tatis, and Manny is way more formidable than Pham and Grisham. If you say that it isn’t then you must be nertz.
Renfroe is a very good defender. Reyes was terrible, and should have been in LF. Myers is barely league average in the OF, and Margot was just above. The power we gave up in Renfroe and Reyes can’t be replaced. Even though I was never a huge Margot fan, his defense was better than anything we have now.
To suggest we’re better with Pham and Grisham is borderline insane.
Grisham and Profar suck. Cordero is overrated even when he is healthy (which is never)
I forgot about Profar. He adds nothing of value to theam.
A good player who never got a chance with the Cardinals, go figure. He has a great glove and is a switch hitter somebody the Padres can use for sure
Sounds like Greg Garcia. Except Garcia can get on base.