The Padres agreed to a minor league deal with outfielder Forrest Wall, as first reported by Mad Friars and reflected on the MLB.com transaction tracker. The speedster elected minor league free agency at the beginning of the offseason.
Wall, 29, has appeared in 31 MLB games over the past two seasons. He debuted with 15 games for the Braves in 2023 and suited up 16 times between Atlanta and Miami last year. He has hit .311 in a small sample of 50 trips to the plate. The former Rockies supplemental round pick has a more modest .268/.356/.385 slash in more than 1600 career Triple-A plate appearances.
The lefty-hitting Wall appeared in 78 Triple-A games between the Atlanta, Miami and Baltimore systems last season. He hit .278/.381/.392 with 20 stolen bases and six home runs. Wall drew walks at a strong 12.3% rate but struck out at an elevated 25.7% clip. That has generally been his profile throughout his minor league career. He takes a decent amount of free passes and steals plenty of bases, but he doesn’t bring much power to the table and strikes out a fair amount.
Wall was drafted as a second baseman but moved to the outfield a few seasons into his professional career. He’s fast enough to provide depth at all three positions. Wall has more than 3400 professional innings as a center fielder and has logged upwards of 1100 minor league frames in left field.
AAA.
Runnin’ into outs GOAT
Great signing!
AJ Preller is filling up Padres OF/INF depth.
Sign enough of those guys and odds increase that 1 or 2 of them have a “breakout year” as either a starter or a 4th or 5th OF/INF utility player.
That’s the Wall, brother!!!!
Padres generally lack OFs in minors so this helps them field a team at AAA. I doubt he makes an appearance on MLB roster, but if they need speed (pinch runner) he’s perhaps now their best option.