The Padres announced this afternoon that infielder Brandon Dixon had cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A El Paso. Dixon had previously been designated for assignment to make room for newly-acquired reliever Scott Barlow on the day of the trade deadline last week.
Dixon, 31, has never hit much in big league stints with the Reds, Tigers, and Padres. In 658 plate appearances throughout his major league career to this point, Dixon owns a slash line of .224/.266/.397 with a wRC+ of 72, though those figures are higher than his 2023 output of .203/.244/.329 (56 wRC+) in 86 trips to the plate. While Dixon contributed versatility to the club’s bench, with big league experience at all three outfield spots in addition to first, second, and third base, his lack of offensive output made him little more than a depth option for a club that already features versatile players like Ha-Seong Kim and Jake Cronenworth.
Prior to Dixon’s DFA, the Padres had already optioned the journeyman to the minor leagues five times this season. Per the terms of the most recent collective bargaining agreement, once a player has been optioned to the minor leagues five times during a season he must be placed on outright assignment waivers in order to be returned to the minor leagues. That likely made the club’s decision to designate Dixon an easier call, since they would not be able to rely upon him as optionable bench depth going forward this season even if he was retained on the 40-man roster. Going forward, Dixon will be able to choose between accepting his outright assignment to Triple-A or rejecting the assignment and electing free agency as a player who has been outrighted previously in his career.
Are Padres fans happy going for it, or trying to make a wild card? Obviously, a Yankees fan, feeling mixed about a wild card. We’ll see what happens.
“You play to win the game.” – Herm Edwards
Stoked they’re going for it, somewhat apprehensive that they’ll make it. Keeping the Faith here!
@Gwynning- For some reason I like the Friars chances better of making a wild card over the Yankees chances. I could definitely be wrong, truth be told if I was owner of the Yankees, I would of been both sellers and buyers at the deadline. I would of traded for Cody Bellinger right when Judge broke his toe, over a month ago. It was a Colossal mistake considering the Cubs would’ve traded him at that time. Live and learn.
Teams ahead of Yankees are still playing well. Teams ahead of Padres have been falling – except Cubs but hey, we only need 1 spot so Cubs can make the run too!
So for that reason, I like Padres chances. They have to win a few more games but they have a schedule that puts them in line to play a lot games against teams ahead of them and those teams all cross up and play each other as well.
3.5 games – 3.0 with a win. Not at all insurmountable.
The Maxon Dixon
The “all in” Padres overpay and squander many resources and that’s why “winning the off-season” or “winning the press conference” is the closest they’ll ever get to the big prize in this decade.
Not squandering your resources so why does it concern you?
You do recall what happened in the most recent post season don’t you? Mets and Dodgers had higher payrolls than Padres, right?
So did the Yankees.
MLB Fan…huh? You think with that name you’d be a fan of seeing some of the biggest names is baseball playing in the postseason…
At this point “going for it” and “trying to make the playoffs” look very similar to me.
Based on current scores as of this post, a Padres win means 3.5 out of WC – all those “should have traded FA’s) don’t seem to really grasp how viable that 3rd spot is right now based on how poorly the teams in front of them are playing.
A 7-3 stretch probably get them inside the line.
There are so many games left, plenty of time for Padres to take charge of a Wild Card. Easily. Not even a question of whether they should have gone for it. Of course they should have gone for it, and next week at this time I bet the Pads will be in possession of a WC. Look, the Diamondbacks, Giants, Marlins are not going to be there at the finish line. And it’s not like the Phillies are world beaters right now.
Post trading deadline time is pure desolation.
Dixon led the Tigers in homeruns a few years back…
Yeah, but it was only 15 homer for the 2019 Tigers who only won 47 games.
It’s still the truth lol