Mixing and matching in the designated hitter spot is a fairly common approach for American League clubs. That may be all the more common if, as expected, National League teams are suddenly given a DH slot to work with for 2020. The Padres have some clear candidates for steady work but could certainly end up operating with a rotation as the team’s needs evolve.
There are two fairly obvious options for regular hitter-only usage in San Diego. First and foremost is Wil Myers, who has moved all over the diamond in recent years but never really found a home. He’s got to fit somewhere, as he’s earning a $20MM annual salary from 2020 through 2022. Myers has already produced thirty dingers in a big-league season, though he slumped last year.
The other possibility is the younger and less-established Josh Naylor, a converted first baseman who’s still learning the outfield. He has options aplenty, so it’s easy enough to keep him off of the active roster, but the Friars are surely interested to see if he’s a keeper. Naylor held his own but didn’t excel in his first attempt at the majors in 2019. But the 22-year-old has shown all he really needs to against upper-minors pitching, including exceptional plate discipline. The question remains whether he can deliver steady pop in the bigs.
So, how about some kind of platoon? Well, Naylor really hasn’t been vulnerable to lefties in the minors. And Myers hasn’t shown significant splits historically. But that did change last year, when he marauded lefties (130 wRC+) while failing to show up against same-handed hurlers (87 wRC+).
Odds are, the Pads will want both of these guys to cycle through spots on the field as well, both to keep everyone fresh and to enhance the organization’s long-term flexibility with those players. Plus, there’s an opportunity here to expand the team’s options behind the dish — Francisco Mejia could get some plate appearances as the DH — and elsewhere. It’d be nice to find added rest for the high-priced Manny Machado, for instance, and keeping Franchy Cordero healthy is a priority after several injury-plagued campaigns. It would be easy enough to slot Tommy Pham, Eric Hosmer, and even Brian Dozier into the DH spot from time to time.
Doesn’t matter, they aren’t in contention.
So, they shouldn’t play baseball all together?! You’re brilliant.
Nice non-sequitur.
Not a non sequitur at all. You’re the one implying that SD is bound to finish last, whatever they do. They you get challenged on your ridiculous claim, and you try to divert the subject.
Until they are respectable which hasn’t happened with AJ Preller pulling strings why wouldn’t someone say they aren’t in contention
as of now no one is in contention. no one has a record
And we all know what the Padres record will be. “5th, NL West.” 4th if you’re being optimistic.
Optimism: something 8man’s parents have never known or felt.
They will finish 2nd in the West.
They will finish tied for 1st with LA, AZ, SF and Colorado
8ManLineupNoPitcherNoDH, Did you steal Biff’s Gray’s Sports Almanac from Back to the Future II? The Padres will have a good chance once the season begins. If I’m being “optimistic”, it’s better than being whatever you’re being. GO PADRES.
Here’s LV oddsmakers for NL West
Dodgers, Padres, DBacks, Rox, Giants
In an 80-game season, they are unquestionably in contention.
Easy they already have a DH. Naylor.
Myers is your DH, with Mejias, Hosmer or Pham at times. Hosmer against RH pitchers, Naylor or Myers at 1B as a fill in for Hosmer.
i think this is Naylor’s spot for the most part, but maybe you mix Myers in from time to time.
though granted the Pham idea makes sense given his injury concerns
Considering that Tommy Pham has a partially torn UCL, I would think that the Padres would want to place him in the only position on the team that is guaranteed not to throw. Just to keep his potent bat in the lineup.
Naylor stinks at Petco why Padre fans convinced him and France are the answe is beyond me but that’s Padre fan not brightest bunch
Just curious, but what do you guys think takes longer? Evolution, or the amount of time it takes to process an edit to a comment on MLBTR?
Thinking about running a poll.
The one time it doesn’t autocorrect to duck lol.
Mutations-the “microstage” in evolution-occurs relatively quickly in microbes. But for your would be poll, you’re probably referring to evolution among mammals.
Profar at DH. Below average at 2nd base and has a bad case of the yips
Another one Profar give me a break
Naylor deserves a chance, he kind of reminds me of the Padres version of Nick Solak. He’s young, blocked at most positions, pretty much a defensive liability, but can hit some. Stick him at DH before Myers IMO.
Naylor does have a position. The problem is that the pads decided to spend 200+ million dollars on 2 guys who play his position.
144 mill.
Myers was an OF before 1B and is still an OF.
Q: What Would The Padres Do For A DH?
A: 7-years, $160-mil, 30 years old and on the downside of his career.
They will pick up Jon Jay after Arizona puts him on waivers. Problem solved.
I’m pretty sure that Jay is in the Cubs front office. But you are likely making an attempt at humor.
Jon Jay, the founding father, was an American patriot and the first Chief Justice of the United States.
Jon Jay, the baseball outfielder, signed a minor league deal with Arizona back in February.
WTF? JOHN JAY was the Chief Justice.
JON Jay is NOT in Cubs front office, he’s taking up space in the Arizona system.
That was great trade by Preller 1/2 of year of Jon Jay for Gyorko who was at least productive for Cardinals for couple of years
Gyorko was a bust in sd, slow lacked fire and a clubhouse cander
And Preller paid most of Gyorko’s salary. I think Gyorko beat the Padres about 4 times after they traded him. Another great Preller move. A bingo-hitting no speed “clubhouse guy” with 1 year before FA for their former top prospect.
I’d roll with Ty France
High average. Home runs. No open spot for him on the field It’s Ty France.
Naylor against righties and Myers against lefties
Nailed it! That is my guess too.
more like Naylor-ed it
Crap! Nice work. lol
Not disagreeing because it theoretically makes sense, but aren’t these guys probably #1 and 2 on the RF depth chart anyways? So they’d both be in the lineup as either the RF or DH regardless of RHP/LHP, right?
Only way I can see that you get around them both being in the lineup is if you play Cordero in RF, but he bats lefty so you wouldn’t want to do that against a LHP anyways. I guess if they kept Lagares or Almonte, they could play one of them in RF against lefties but those guys don’t really hit well, so you’re probably better off with Myers in RF and Naylor as DH regardless of the splits.
Cordero won’t make the 30 squad he has to prove himself and thus far has not.
I like the platoon of Myers and Naylor, also Hosmer and Naylor
Naylor hit lefties better than righties in the minors.
Myers is a probably a better defensive first baseman than Hosmer.
Psh, that’s way too easy.
Enter Franmil Re—
Directed by Robert E. Weide.
I can hear that lol.
My favorite “Curb” director.
Sheeeeiitt, that really stings now.
“We can’t use Reyes until the DH comes to the National League, and who knows when that’s gonna happen.”
Taylor Trammel’s got some work to do. .
Renfroe and Reyes don’t have the obp ability.
Regardless if they play OF or DH an obp around .310 isn’t encouraging.
You realize Reyes has played a single season and is young and was projected to be better? There’s room for improvement.
Yeah? Kyle Drabek was projected to be a TOR when Philly traded him to the Blue Jays for Roy Halladay.
Reyes posts average walk numbers at best, even dating back to his minor numbers. He’s not been able to cut back on the strikeouts either.
Power is there. Walk ability is average. Unless he’s batting .280-.290 his obp won’t be anything to write home about.
the same can be said of Naylor.
Naylor posted better strike out % than both renfroe and Reyes did last year. Naylor has consistently posted well below average strike out % throughout his minors career
Last 3 years renfroe posted around 25% or worse strike out %s. Even dating back to his minors numbers he striked out a good number of times.
Reyes also struck out around 28% the last 2 years. His strike out numbers were a bit better than renfroes were in the minors but no where near naylors.
Not everyone in your lineup needs a .350 OBP. If franmil is bashing 35-40 HRS w/ a .310 OBP at DH that’s just fine. The idea is to have some lineup balance. You aren’t building a team with 9 slap hitters with a .380 OBP and you aren’t building one w/ 9 Franmil Reyes’
Having both Renfroe and Reyes in the same lineup is a bit redundant. But they certainly could’ve kept 1. Definitely could’ve used 1 of them right now.
They have one. Naylor. Renfroe Reyes and Naylor are very similar in skill set.
Furthermore, DH giving you .310 obp wasn’t acceptable in 2019. Idk how you could possibly think that or where you think busting out 35-40 HRs makes up for that. A guy who’s sole purpose is offense (no defense) should be giving you HRs AND obp….not one or the other. You can make that case for OTHER positions. Not DH.
You know how many DHs in the AL had below .330? Not many. Orioles Renato Nunez posted a .311 obp. Khris Davis posted .293 in 623 PA…..after posting .326 and .336 the previous 2 years. Rowdy Tellez posted .293 in 45 games at DH which the blue jayes cycled guys through. Smoak saw 30, Sogard saw 15.
Cabrera- .346
Cruz – .392
Alvarez- .412
Encarnarcion – .344
Martinez- .383
Choo -.371
Vogelbach -.341
Soler -.354
Ohtani- .343
Ray’s cycled guys through mainly Meadows and Garcia last year both posted over .330 obp. And they just recently acquired Jose Martinez to be the DH while Meadows heads back to the OF since Garcia left. Martinez has posted .379, .364, and .340 obp last 3 years himself.
This is nonsense.
You realize production is production, right? If you slug say .520+ with a .310 OBP you realize that player is still very productive offensively?
And Renfroe is an actual plus defender in RF, so whatever you’re saying about him being like fat boy Naylor is way off base.
You realize we are talking about offense right?
The fact you want to bring defense into the equation proves you don’t have a leg to stand on. Nice try though. Applaud the effort no matter how futile it was.
Production is production. Chris Carter posted .222/.321/.499 belted 41 homers back in 2016 playing for the Brewers. Could hardly find a DH job after being cut. Posted well above average walk numbers at 11% but a ridiculous 37% k rate too. So production is production right? History says you’re wrong.
2018- Victor Martinez, Cj Cron, Khris Davis were the only qualified DH to post below .330 obp. Cron was cut and Rays couldn’t find a trade partner. Cron posted .253/.323/.493 that year for an ops of .816. Davis posted .326 and had to belt 48 home runs.
2017- Kendrys Morales, Hanley Ramirez, Mark Trumbo, Albert Pujols, Ryon Healy, Corey Dickerson, Carlos Beltran. I assume you know what happened to most of them and what their contracts were.
Of those Corey Dickerson slashed .282/.325/.490….Rays were unable to trade him and subsequently cut him much like Cron.
Very few DHs get away with under .330 obp. Even guys hitting over .500 slg. They usually carry encouraging stats like strike out % at or below league average of 25%
Reyes nor Renfroe have shown the ability to mitigate strikeout numbers.
Reyes maybe but his D is terrible and too many K’s. He’ll be a good no. 7 hole hitter for the Tribe as DH only.
Wil Myers’ two most healthy and best season were the two years he spent almost elusively at 1st base. I think getting out of the grass really helped his body. So allowing him to DH mostly with some spot starts at 1st and LF/RF would hopefully keep him healthy enough to produce decent numbers again.
Good point. Myers seems to have a very fragile ego and cannot multi-task. He hits well when he is comfortable and doesn’t have to stress about his fielding. If they do use Myers they need to just put him at DH and leave him there. He doesn’t react well to being moved around.
They’ve asked Wil to do alot since they acquired him. CF, OF, 1B, 3B…..stick him at DH and just let him bat. Nothing else. Him and Franchy Cordero should handle the DHing duties if necessary.
Pham Grisham Naylor in the OF.
You’re going to give that fat tub of lard— Josh Naylor a glove in the outfield?
That’s just horrendous. Should’ve kept Renfroe if they need a RF that bad.
Really showing off A.J. Preller’s terrible team building skills. Renfroe is a RF, okay let’s trade him! Grisham is a potential RF too. Oh okay, let’s trade our CF and put Grisham in CF!
Someone is a little upset. You mad bro? Cause you seem mad. Yeah you mad.
@jbigz12 hey that’s not nice. Josh Naylor’s bat will play.
But no, he should not be allowed anywhere near the outfield.
And what happened to you saying Renfroe will be a non-tender candidate in a year or two?
jbigz12, You shouldn’t refer to anyone as a “fat tub of lard”. The SD Union Tribune wrote in February that Josh Naylor entered Spring training in the best shape of his career, having recently shed 20-30 lbs.
Wonder why he’s 112 games under .500 as GM and signed players to horrendous contracts
Pham has a torn throwing arm he’ll be a good DH at times, then Myers and Hosmer as back up DH.
I would have Mejia DH’ing as often as possible, with Hedges playing majority of games behind the plate. Myers is DH when Mejia is backstop.
Either one of these guys in Myers and Naylor would fit the bill. More so Myers because he can’t stay on the field.
I think the last paragraph of the article is spot on, they’d likely cycle a bunch of different guys through as DH without one person taking the bulk of the playing time.
Naylor is probably the closest thing they have to a true DH, and would probably be the first guy on the depth chart, but in an 80 game season at DH he might be getting 20 games, with Myers getting 20 games, and Pham, Machado, Cordero, Meijia, Hosmer, Dozier, Tatis, all getting 5ish games to fill out the other half of the season.
Let the pitcher hit and DH for Austin Hedges!
DH Myers since he can’t play any position with decent defense.
Dopey Myers they called him in Tampa stinks