The Padres announced they’ve selected reliever Alek Jacob onto the big league roster. San Diego optioned José Castillo to Triple-A in a corresponding move. They already had an opening on the 40-man roster after designating Nelson Cruz for assignment a few days ago.
San Diego selected Jacob in the 16th round of the 2021 draft. A $75K senior sign out of Gonzaga, Jacob moved quickly up the ladder thanks to strong minor league performances. He traversed three levels last season. He struggled at year’s end in Triple-A but was dominant in High-A and Double-A.
Over the winter, Baseball America named the 6’3″ righty the #23 prospect in a relatively shallow San Diego farm system. The outlet praised a plus changeup and excellent control but noted well below-average fastball velocity that sits in the mid-upper 80s.
Despite lacking overpowering stuff, Jacob has thrived with Double-A San Antonio this year. Over 27 1/3 innings, he carries a 1.32 ERA. He’s striking out just under 30% of opponents and has induced grounders at a huge 56.1% clip. Already 25, Jacob is older than the standard Double-A prospect. Still, there’s little arguing with that kind of production, and he’s earned his first MLB look as a long relief option for skipper Bob Melvin.
Keep tossing pasta at the wall, eventually it sticks (ex Cosgrove). This pen needs some help
Eh pen will be fine
Morejon just returned. Suarez is on his way back. Wilson isn’t too far off. They should add 1 arm before the deadline just in case Suarez has a set back or something.
They should go to a 6 man rotation with Darvish Snell Musgrove Wacha Lugo and pen day with Waldron starting it off for 3 or so innings. Limit some guys workload down the stretch.
¡Bienvenidos a San Dee-ah-go Señor Bieber!
I see this as the first big step for the padres making their push for the playoffs. There’s no way they get left out in the cold
Now that’s Scouting and Development. Scouts identified a college Senior with some tools and player development did their jobs. Got to have those two departments flourishing and on the same page to field championship teams.
something the San Diego organization knows nothing about. Glad you’re here to let them know!
They’ve actually had a lot of success developing guys in recent memory in later rounds.
Ty France
Phil Maton
David Bednar
Jack Suwinski
Adam Cimber
Developing players for other teams
How about Tatis? The most exciting player in the game. He was drafted White Sox but the Padres saw more than the Sox did and he did not play a single game for them. The Padres developed Tatis.
It’s more that they have success scouting and identifying talent than developing it.
In Fangraphs recent Padres top prospect post, (which has a good write up on Alek Jacob too) they talk about how the large number of MLB players originally signed/drafted by the Padres is evidence that they choose good players, but they also discuss how a lot of those players end up playing elsewhere which isn’t great.
And
Nationals developed Soto
Orioles developed Machado
Rays developed Cronenworth
Padres developed Tatis Jr
Every team has players they developed and players other teams developed. Welcome to baseball.
What I was mentioning is that all those players are producing for other teams
And guys padres got from other teams are producing for the Padres.
Kim, Soto, Snell, Musgrove, Lugo, Wacha, Hader to name a few.
Not including the smart ones?