In a move that recently eluded MLBTR, the Padres signed outfielder Óscar Mercado to a minor league deal, as relayed by Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America. Mercado has already appeared in five games with Triple-A El Paso.
The 28-year-old Mercado once looked to be establishing himself as an everyday regular at the big league level, especially during a strong 2019 season. He hit 15 home runs for Cleveland that year and produced a batting line of .269/.318/.443. That offense was actually slightly below league average in that juiced ball season, translating to a wRC+ of 98. But he also provided strong outfield defense, including in center field, and stole 15 bases. Since that was just his age-24 season, it seemed fair to expect he might be able to continue developing from that platform.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case, as he’s hit just .206/.262/.334 in 491 plate appearances since that season, which amounts to a wRC+ of 64. He’s bounced from Cleveland to Philadelphia, then back to Cleveland, exhausting his options in the process. He signed a minor league deal with St. Louis this winter and was selected to the big leagues in mid-May, serving in a part-time bench role. He was on the roster for over six weeks but only received 32 plate appearances in 20 games.
For the Padres, they have a regular outfield of Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Trent Grisham but have cycled through a few depth pieces this year, such as José Azocar, Brandon Dixon, David Dahl and Adam Engel. There’s little harm in them bringing Mercado aboard to get a close-up look at him. His speed and defense give him a solid floor and he could still carve out a role by getting his offensive production in the vicinity of average. If he cracks the roster at any point, he’s out of options but has yet to reach arbitration and could potentially be cheaply retained for subsequent seasons.
I want to hate Grisham, but he occasionally flashes his skills.
As bad as he’s seemed, Grisham’s OPS and SLG% is better than Bogaerts and Cronenworth right now, and his OBP is better than Machado’s. and he leads the Padres in 2Bs
Grisham has actually been on a tear since about mid June.
Good depth signing. At least he never played for the Rangers so Preller is expanding his search…
HAHA. Nailed it with Preller.
Thanks, Ed…hahaha!
He wasn’t scouted by Preller when he was with the Rangers? That would make so much more sense.
I have seen Oscar and he is no supermercado
Juan Soto to Brewers for Frelick, Mitchell and Wilkin (2023 1st round pick, might need to be named later).
Hader and Snell to Atlanta for Kyle Wright and Vaughn Grissom.
You can’t do that anymore with the current years picks being named as PTBNLs. They got rid of that after it happened with Trea Turner
I know I’ll get hate for saying it but…
Bellinger, Turner and Joe Kelly could all be decent trades in the next week.
Bellinger is a good fielder and is hitting way better than Grish.
JT is an actual DH and could give Manny rest.
Joe Kelly is a lights out bullpen guy!
Just my thoughts. Plus, that first Dodger series would be a dang explosion.
You don’t wanna touch Joe Kelly lol let alone give up something for him.
There may be a bidding war among contenders for Bellinger. He’s worked out way better than I thought he would. He’s one of the best rentals who will be available.
The worst the Cubs get for him is a draft pick after making a qualifying offer next year. A lot of teams would like a centerfielder who is hitting well.
Been on here several times saying I would like to see Bellinger on the Padres. At this point he is a rental so while I want him on the team, he is not worth giving up any top prospects for.
Turner has a partial NTC that includes the Padres. He would be a good fit if he was willing to play for the Padres.
Joe Kelly is just terrible. 4.82 ERA this season after 6.08 last season. He is a hard no.
Should trade you for someone that actually understands baseball.
Wow – way to give up a contending team with a shot in 23/24 for a future of young proven players.
Maybe read a few posts for your elders that have been around
So riddle me this: if a team has said “major league ready” young players on cheap contracts, why are they trading them for a 2 month rental?
What you get for 2 month rentals are very young non-mlb ready guys that are called “prospects”.
The better the player traded, the more and higher value of said prospects.
And Wacha isn’t a free agent.
If the Padres aren’t picking up their option on Wacha he is WORSE than a rental. He has an opt-out after this season which he will do the opposite of what his team wants him to do with it.
“The Padres announced Thursday they’ve signed free-agent righty Michael Wacha. The CAA client will reportedly receive a $3.5MM signing bonus and a $4MM salary in 2023. After the upcoming season, the Padres will have to decide whether or not to pick up successive $16MM options for 2024 and 2025 — essentially a two-year, $32MM deal. If the club declines that option, Wacha will have a series of player options, respectively valued at $6.5MM in 2024 and then $6MM in 2025-26. Unlike the team option, Wacha’s options are a series of one-year decisions he’ll be able to make each offseason.”
So first the Padres decide if they want to sign him for 2/$32m. If they choose not to do that then it’s pretty much guaranteed that Wacha opts out. So yeah, he’s a rental. And if he doesn’t opt out it means his contract is underwater which makes him even worse than a rental.
With a team option he isn’t a rental u less they make him one. A team can trade for him knowing whether or not they are planning to exercise the option.
A rental is a guy that is hitting free agency and nothing the team can do about it to stop it.
With Wacha and his performance he is a lock to have option picked up unless he doesn’t come back from injury and we’ll, if that then he won’t be traded for anyway.
Idk. His club option isn’t exactly cheap and for the past 9 seasons Wacha has been bad more often than he’s been good. I could be convinced either way on them picking up his option but if they’re not going to do that and some other team is willing to trade for him the Padres should go ahead and do that.
Why? we are out of the ply off.
@Math So you want to give up on 2023 and 2024 then?
“Who said give up.”
You did. Trading Soto is giving up on 2023 and 2024.
“Trading guys at peak value for cheap contracts give padres options.”
If Preller cared about that he wouldn’t have traded for Soto at all.
“How does QO draft picks help them in 2024 exactly? How does guys signing elsewhere help them in 2024 exactly?”
By letting them keep Soto.
At the end of the day, Preller eouldn’t get back half of what he gave up for Soto if he trades him now. If he already thought Jian Sotp was worth more than CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Bobby Barrels, James Wood and Jarlin Susana why on Earth would he only one year later after Soto just made an All Star game suddenly decide he’s worth less than half of that?
Lol. No one is trading us guys that will make a “better rounded roster for 2023 and on” for 1.3 years of Soto. No one. The Padres didn’t even do that when they traded for Soto. That would be making themselves worse both now and in the future. If Soto is traded, the acquiring team will be one that wants to win now and as such isn’t going to trade anyone that is currently contributing or is expected to contribute this year or next.
@Pads Fans So… Not you?
Grisham is hitting .274 with an .890 OPS against LHP. Why would the Padres need to platoon him against lefties. Its RHP he is struggling against.
Do you really not understand that .764 is good? Its well above average. Its also 50 points higher than Mercado’s career numbers against LHP. Add that to the fact that Grisham is one of the best defensive CF in the game and Mercado is not.
The Padres have issues right now but Grisham vs LHP is not one of them.
Be easy on him BIL. He’s short bus level of baseball knowledge.
“BIL” is you lol.
If I was the Padres I want the guy with power, defense, and the 50 point higher OPS.
Not sure why you would even want to attempt to argue against that.
In the 3 TOTAL plate appearances with a man on third and 1 out, Grisham has 1 hit and 1 RBI. Are you seriously trying to base your entire argument on 3 PA? BTW, the hit was against a LHP.
You don’t even want to LOOK at how Grisham has done over his career in that situation. It will just make you feel even worse about your total lack of understanding of how baseball works. Especially the 1.024 OPS. If you do look, notice that Mercado has not done as well in his career in those situations.
Looking forward to whatever stupid thing you say next.
Grisham strikes out 30.4% of the time against RHP. 29.5% against LHP.
Since you seem to have a hard time with baseball math I will try to help you.
The lower number is better.
@Math Call him out for bringing his other account into the discussion to “agree” with himself. He muted me so I can’t.
Tucker is likely to come off rehab assignment in next week so Mercado fills his slot on the Chihuahua’s roster. While he doesn’t hit anyone well, Tucker has better splits against RHP and all his “power” has come against them so far. He will get starts against tough righties while Tatis plays center I would guess.
Nice player. Solid defense. Should help with matchups down the stretch. Good addition!
For sure. Mercado is better than the general public thinks he is. It’s almost a badge of honor that the Cardinals are moving on from him.