Padres top prospect CJ Abrams is healthy enough to return to full baseball activities, per Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). Abrams had been dealing with a shoulder issue, but it does not appear as if the injury will be the cause of a delayed season start for Abrams. The Padres’ top-ranked prospect fractured his tibia and tore his mcl in a collision at second base that ended his 2021 season after just 42 games in Double-A. Despite the injury, Abrams remains one of MiLB’s most intriguing young talents, landing as the ninth-ranked prospect in the game per Baseball America, 11th-ranked overall by Baseball Prospectus, and currently sixth-ranked by MLB.com.
Before the injury, Abrams was impressive as a 20-year-old playing above his station in a league where players were roughly four years his elder on average. Regardless, he slashed .296/.363/.420 over 183 plate appearances prior to the injury, good for a 112 wRC+. At the dish, Abrams put forth a fairly well-rounded game with an 8.2 percent walk rate, 19.7 percent strikeout rate, and .123 ISO while also stealing 13 bases in 15 opportunities. Power isn’t his primary skillset, but Abrams showed enough pop at his age to suggest there’s more growth to come in that department.
The question for Abrams right now, beyond his return to health, is where the Padres hope to station him in the field. He has remained a shortstop, but a certain Fernando Tatis Jr. has aims on holding that spot long-term. Of course, the Padres experimented moving Tatis around the diamond in 2021, driven at least publicly by a desire to keep him from re-injuring his shoulder. Abrams played a little second base in Double-A, and maybe that’s where he ultimately ends up in order to secure a spot on the Major League roster. The first hurdle will be proving himself healthy, and if the season eventually gets underway, he’ll either be back in Double-A for a time or jumped ahead to Triple-A. Either way, the Padres will hope to see Abrams somewhere on the diamond in Petco Park before the end of the 2023 season, if not sooner.
Hope he can get some solid playing time this year. Heartbreaking when kids don’t pan out due to injuries
This would be my half crazy trade idea that would help fill the needs of both Padres and reds to some extent.
Padres receive
Luis Castillo
Luis Cessa
Jesse Winker
PTBNL
6-8 million cash
Reds receive
CJ Abrams
Alcosta
Morejon
Ona
Ethan Elliott
Rhame
The Padres take care of their 2 biggest needs by adding Castillo who would be a great TOR pitcher that they can sandwich between Clevinger, and Musgrove in that rotation. They also fill that giant hole Out in left field with one of the best bats in the game. With the universal DH coming this year they could choose to plug Winker and his below average defense at DH for a fair share of his games. Adding Cessa gives them a middle innings guy who can every once and a while be very good.
The Reds should commit to their rebuild and trade players with only a couple of years of service time remaining while they can still get a great haul for them. CJ Abrams is the true SS prospect they desperately need. With this trade they add high upside guys that they need to continue to improve this farm system
I think a few prices would be moved around or replaced but that isn’t terribly bad for either side. My biggest issue is whether the pads would be willing to trade that much talent in one deal but I like the foundation.
I have a hard time seeing Cinci not only kicking in cash, but I don’t see them looking to do a full rebuild either. The trade itself isn’t bad if you assume Cinci is in teardown, and that the Padres are willing to gut their system with one trade.
Honestly I’d be ok with it. Usually I’m hesitant to trade our top prospects, and Abrams will be a stud, but with Cronenworth and Tatis in the infield he might not be as valuable to us anyways.
I think it is a little short on the SD side, but close. It depends on whether or not the Reds are planning on giving up in 2022. If they don’t plan on competing in 2022, then they are basically giving up on one year of three pretty good players.
If they did that, it would make sense to add two more moves: trade Gray and extend Mahle. Keep Greene, Lodolo, and Abrams in AAA until late-April of 2023, and you would have three top-tier prospects around for almost 7 years.
They would still have plenty of shelf life left for Stephenson, India, Senzel & Suarez, they have no existing obligations on anyone past 2023, and they’d have the important position up the middle all locked up.
If I were Cincy, I’d ask SD to drop Costa & Ona from the offer (I think Rhame was cut already) and ask them to add a slightly better prospect prospect, like maybe Weathers. I don’t think he’s in SD’s plans this year or next, so I don’t think that Preller says no. And if I were Cincy, I also wouldn’t be cheap with the cash portion.
The Padres need to do a better job of keeping their players healthy?
Are we talking about this type of stuff to not look the nasty ugly pimple that is the players strike in the mirror? I knows a few weeks till catchers and pitchers “normally” would have reported, nothing is normal though
To be fair to the Padres, every club dealt with significant injuries last season. It isn’t just the Padres who was dealt with injuries from top to bottom. Yankees, Rays, Braves, and Mets are just a few who suffered key injuries amongst stars and high end prospects. You have to be small minded to believe Padres management gives players little or none physical, mental, etc treatment or therapy. Injuries happen to the best of players and hardly poor management of players health and well-being. Hopefully Abrams returns with full speed ahead.
If I was the Padres, I’d start him in AA for roughly 20 games to get any idea of where he is at physically. Then if all goes well and he shows no signs of loss time due to injuries, send him to AAA and leave a note for him that says, “Keep up the hard work, see you On August 3rd!” I feel he will be playing next to Tatis for a few weeks in August when rosters expand. Just enough taste of the majors for Abrams to be hungry next year for a roster spot on the major league squad. This kid is talented enough to raise eye brows. He may not have the power teams build their roster on, but he can be eventually a nice 1 or 2 hole hitter. Rookie season when DH comes in, I see him hitting at the 8th spot in the lineup. It would give Padres a nice guy to get things going at the bottom of the lineup. With what Padres have (maybe pushing here with Hosmer), that line up is good and add Abrams, yikes!
Padres still have options for free agent SP out there. They can get a solid middle of the rotation pitcher and plug in a few league minimum salaries for a few bullpen arms. Then they would look good on paper next season (not counting Abrams of course). If anything, it would be crazy if Abrams gets traded to Pirates in a package for Reynolds. *drools* Sorry, back to reality, good luck Padres!
Hippy, what players strike? The owners instituted a lockout. There’s a big difference.
No way I would trade Abrams.I know their really deep on middle infielders.Soft hands can translate to a lot of positions.
Al Avila can help AJ Preller.
The Tigers can take on ANY amount of salary you need.
Al, hire the Superfife,. build a MONSTER!
STOP SELLING KOOL AID!