The Padres announced that they have designated outfielder Greg Allen for assignment. The move creates 40-man roster space for newly signed infielder Ha-Seong Kim, whose deal is official.
Allen joined the Padres as a secondary piece in the blockbuster August trade that also sent right-hander Mike Clevinger from Cleveland to San Diego, though the outfielder only played in one game with his new team. He ended the year as a .154/.281/.308 hitter with one home run in 32 plate appearances between the two clubs.
Last season’s 61 wRC+ was essentially par for the course for the 27-year-old Allen, who has batted .239/.298/.343 (69 wRC+) over 618 PA since he first played in the majors in 2017. Allen has lined up at all three outfield positions and combined for four Defensive Runs Saved, which is a plus; on the other hand, Allen’s offensive struggles and total lack of minor league options shouldn’t do him any favors as he reaches DFA limbo.
The Padres are getting rid of all of their Gregs!
Time to get rid of all the O’Grady
And all the bandwagon fans
Baseball needs all the fans it can get right now. Bandwagon or no bandwagon. So good on ’em.
What bangwagon fans ? You mean all the people from, ie born and raised in San Diego who root for smell a, giants, braves, yankees, Cubs, etc?
You mean people who were fans of other teams when that team was good, and now are fans of the Padres because they’re good?
Yeah that’s a bandwagon fan. The fact they rooted for those other teams just adds more ammo to the title
batter up, The Padres NEED all the fans they can get, bandwagon or not.
The Dodgers of LA are built around bandwagon fans who show up late and leave early. All teams are happy to take the money from bandwagon fans.
Cleveland should rename their team The Bandwagons.
He looks to be what you would find if you looked up Replacement Player in the baseball dictionary.
True. We need to remember that a replacement player is waaaaaaayyyyyy better than potentially most of us. Not being an ass, just perspective
Well…..yeah. I’m sure I’d be in the many double digit negatives.
I just think it’s remarkable how consistently he’s played at replacement level in both rWAR and fWAR over his career and across splits.
stollcm: You’re dead on re him being better than most of us.
Shit I’d have like an 10.50 era throwing that 88mph sinker that doesn’t sink sometimes
If you think you’d record an out, you’re likely lying to yourself.
Yeah, most of us would be happy if our ERA weren’t infinite…
Most of us? All of us!
Woah woah. You never know if Greg Allen is better than all of us! we might have Robinson cano posting on MLBTR during his “break”!
The Blue Jays are interested in Greg Allen.
Was he included in the Clevinger deal just to clear up 40 man room for CLE?
Seems kind of pointless to acquire him and then DFA him the following offseason unless his sole purpose was just clearing a roster space. The only way I can really justify his inclusion in the trade is if CLE was basically like “we need to open up a 40 man roster spot to do this so you need to take Allen”. But even that really doesn’t make sense because CLE could always have DFA’ed on their own.
With Pham down, he was the last line of defense in the OF for those 2 months. His insurance policy just expired.
They got to watch him for a time, and saw what Cleveland saw. Not much.
He was acquired for 2020 as defensive depth. A CFer with speed who also can play the corner OF spots. He was someone they potentially needed in 2020 but is now expendable. I wouldn’t overthink it.
Imagine getting wasted, hammered, sloshed because your team is making all of these ridiculous moves only to be told the following day that there are no plans for you to be a part of it…
It legit gives me chills just thinking about it. On New Year’s Eve too.
A fresh start buddy.
‘Tis the life of a fringe player during the winter months.
I mean, that’s what happens to players who aren’t stars.
Exactly. He made it to the bigs, got to play with the best, made a lot of money (major league minimum, but still), and will have stories to tell his grandchildren that I won’t.
And his career also isn’t over yet. He’ll get a spring training invite from some team and might stick as a 26th man. At worst, he’s forced to sign a minor league deal and await a call up.
Allen already had whatever shock it might be over the summer when the team that drafted him and developed him, traded him essentially as as a throw in. I am sure at this point he realizes that it’s a business and that he hasn’t achieved the results to date that would make him a more permanent roster fixture.
I really was hoping Allen would turn into the team’s solution a couple years ago. He is a speedy defender, has a great arm, and a switch hitter. Unfortunately he’s terrible batting righty, and not a good enough lefty hitter to make up for it.
Not that anyone thought Allen was a world beater, but man that Clevinger trade is getting more and more lopsided.
Down to 1 year post 2nd TJS+ 7 or so 2020 starts of Clev+ 1 game of Allen, for SIX guys helping the Tribe for the next half decade
I mean, it’s not like the Padres traded any stars to the Indians. Sure, we definitely lost the trade, but the players we gave up were never going to get playing time in San Diego.
Hedges was getting playing time, as was Quantrill. Quantrill would be useful in their bullpen now. Not a major peice (but honestly I am a little excited to see what the Cleveland pitching factory can do with him), but certainly would have gotten time.
Cantillo and Arias are going to make or break the trade, but they are both probably more buried in Cleveland. 10 of their top 25 prospects are middle infielders, he’s a little more advanced than most (Rocchio, Bracho, Sanquentin, Tolentino, Tucker), but there are also good prospects at or around his level (Freeman, Fermin). Owen Miller has the same problem. Cantillo is a good arm, but the Indians have a whole pipeline of those.
I liked Hedges, but he wouldn’t have gotten playing time over Nola, Caritini, and Campusano. Quantrill was a middle bullpen guy for us, and we already have plenty of guys like that. And Naylor barely played after making his debut on 2019.
For the prospects, Arias and Miller are blocked by Tatis and Machado. Cantillo has decent stuff, but he’s blocked by Snell/Darvish/Lamet/Clevinger/Paddack/Gore/Morejon/Weathers. He wouldn’t start for us anytime in the future.
Who are these bullpen guys the Padres already have? Their bullpen took a major step back in 2020.
Quantrill, Cantillo, Arias and Miller could have easily gotten playing time in San Diego.
Oh no, you’re back.
Arias is a glove first shortstop prospect who is blocked by Tatis. Miller is a low level 3rd base prospect(probably the worst prospect in this trade) who can’t play because of Machado. Cantillo was our fifth best starting pitcher prospect at the time of the trade, and he is further blocked by the Padres adding Darvish and Snell.
Our bullpen was actually pretty decent this year. Most of the trouble came early in the season when a couple of our pitchers got injured. Pagan, Pomeranz, Strahm, Adams, Altavilla, Baez, Johnson, Stammen, Castillo, Espinoza, Wingenter, and maybe Paddack or Morejon(one of those guys will get bumped out of the rotation next year). Plus, the Padres are planning on re-signing at least one good reliever. Sure, Quantrill would be nice to have, but we have enough guys who are at least close to him talent-wise.
The bullpen ranked 5th in MLB last year despite the rough start.
@dan55 Padres are going to need a Tatis replacement in 4 years, possibly earlier. Arias could have been that guy. And until then, the Dodgers have demonstrated how important it is to have depth. On Miller, see the depth comment. On Cantillo, you can never have too much pitching and it’s not like the rotation and bullpen was all studs in 2020
The only relievers they have who still there who were any good are Drew Pomeranz, Pierce Johnson, Matt Strahm and Dan Altavilla.
@Brewer88 in what? Blowing leads?
Pitcherwins – we already had this discussion on a previous thread. I was correct then and I am correct now.
Arias is a glove first shortstop who will be major league ready by 2022. We have Tatis until at least 2024. We don’t have a need for Arias. Even if you believe that Tatis will leave after 2024(I don’t), then we still have four years to draft and develop a shortstop prospect to take his place.
Miller was the lowest ranked prospect in the trade, and even if he manages to make it to MLB, he won’t displace Machado at third.
At the time of the trade, Cantillo was our fifth best pitching prospect. The Padres have plenty of guys who are better than him, on top of the pitchers currently in our rotation. He would most likely never have made it to the majors with the Padres.
If you had paid any attention to the Padres games last year, you would see that our bullpen issues revolved around Yates, Pomeranz, and Pagan all getting injured. Once Pomeranz and Pagan were healthy, our bullpen became really good.
Yes, depth is always good, but when you have a chance to compete for a World Series, you need to make every move possible to ensure you have the best chance of winning. Hoarding low level prospects is not a good way to build a championship team.
Can you really claim there’s no place for Arias when the Padres just spent 30M on an unknown prospect… who is also a middle infielder?
Pitching is always needed. Just because you have 3 pitchers you trust- two of which made it out of 2020 healthy- doesn’t mean you don’t need rotation depth. You have Snell, Darvish, Lamet.. and prospects. And no. Paddack doesn’t do anything for me
Can we also stop pretending Gore is mlb ready? He’s barely pitched in AA. If he makes the majors in 2021 it’s a plus, it shouldn’t be expected
I understand you feel you have stars at their main position so you’re good. But even the front office doesn’t seem to agree with that sentiment
Hedges was also one of the best defensive catchers in the game. That’s certainly something to miss, especially when Nola wasn’t anything special in SD.
I know you want to claim the trade wasn’t bad. But dude it’s getting uglier by the day. If Kim busts and/or Tatis/Machado misses time, their knack for throwing around near-MLB ready talent could be a big negative very quickly
Laughing@You –
Yes, I can claim that there is no place for Arias. He has a good glove, but he won’t hit very well and he is not ready to make his debut until at least 2022. Kim is a good hitter who can contribute this year. They aren’t the same person.
You say you can’t trust Paddack, but you do trust Cantillo? Cantillo was our fifth best pitching prospect at the time of this trade! Fifth best! And he hasn’t even made it to AA yet. That means we have five prospects who are better than him, not counting current major league starters. We have plenty of depth.
I personally love Hedges, but he would be our third best catcher on the team right now behind Nola and Carratini, and both those guys play good defense and easily outhit Hedges.
Yes, the Padres will probably end up losing this trade in terms of total WAR accumulated by the players. But that is a risk you have to take when a pitcher like Clevinger is available. And before you write off Clevinger, remember that he will be healthy in 2022 to give us a rotation made up of some group of Clevinger/Lamet/Darvish/Snell/Paddack/Gore/Morejon/Weathers. That will be very good. I agree that Gore isn’t major league ready right now, but he will be by 2022 at the latest.
another KBO sign
Why not? It beats working at Amazon.
As an Indians fan, Greg had some good moments on the team, and he always seemed like one of the nicest ball players on the team too. But unfortunately he just never lived up to that contact hitting-lead off hitter potential
We all were hoping for better things from him offensively, and he had many opportunities to nail down a starting spot in CLE. I’d hate to see them bring him back because at this point he is what he is, and we already have a boatload of OFs with a similar skillset and offensive shortcomings.
If he clears waivers and accepts the assignment he will still be in the Padres system (please correct me if I’m wrong). He will still have a shot to play every day in the minors and be ready to get called up if necessary.
He’s a SD native, so he might do that. Of course, if he can stick with another big league team, that’s the right move.
It’s not his choice yet. If he goes unclaimed (likely), the Padres keep him and he doesn’t get a choice to opt out. He gets that freedom if he hits 5 years service time or if he gets outrighted a second time.
@Col_chestbridge no a player can elect minor league FA if he is not on the 40-man roster when his contract for that year expires if he has 6+ years of combined major and minor league service time. This is why Michael Gettys was able to sign with the Red Sox this offseason.
He’s out of options so not likely to be claimed will probably take a minor league assignment
I wish Greg Allen, the San Diego Native well. I was pulling for him since he is an elite defender and can play all three OF spots. Unfortunately, his offensive limitations will keep him from wearing Padre Brown this season.
Knock, knock…
Greg Allen.
Greg Allen who?
EXACTLY
Is Spring Training canceled yet ?