The Padres announced that center fielder Brandon Lockridge has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamstring strain. Infielder/outfielder Connor Joe has been recalled to take his spot on the active roster.
Lockridge, 28, isn’t a big star. He has just 25 big league games to his name and a tepid line of .186/.239/.302 in those. However, the injury is a significant one for the Padres since this now means their starting and backup center fielders are both on the IL at the same time.
Jackson Merrill is, of course, the club’s primary option up the middle. He finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting last year and the club made a strong commitment to him by signing him to a nine-year, $135MM extension a couple of weeks ago.
However, Merrill landed on the IL due to a right hamstring strain just a few days after inking that deal. That meant that Lockridge suddenly became the club’s everyday center fielder. With Lockridge now out of action due to his own hammy strain, the club will have to get a bit creative.
Tyler Wade seems to be Plan A. He entered yesterday’s game in place of Lockridge and is starting tonight’s contest out there as well. He’s a multi-positional defensive specialist but center field is one spot where he doesn’t have a ton of experience. He has 52 2/3 innings in center, compared to hundreds in the outfield corners and the infield spots to the left of first base. Even if he can handle the position defensively, he isn’t likely to provide much with the bat. He has 865 major league plate appearances with a .217/.291/.289 line.
Per Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Joe had been playing some center field for Triple-A El Paso due to an injury suffered by Forrest Wall. Perhaps that makes him part of Plan B, though he has no major league experience at the position.
There are some speculative fits on the roster. Jason Heyward has lots of center field experience overall but not so much in recent years and he’s now 35 years old. Fernando Tatis Jr. also has 86 innings in center and could move over from right, though that doesn’t seem to be the plan. He tells Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune that he is staying in right, as far as he knows.
It will all be temporary, as Merrill will solidify the spot when he returns, but it will make for an interesting challenge in the meantime. The Padres are baseball’s best team at the moment, out to a 13-3 start, and they will naturally try to do whatever they can to keep that momentum going.
Photo courtesy of Denis Poroy, Imagn Images
Another former Yankee farmhand
Padres traded De Los Santos for Lockridge. Even though lockridge is a bench piece I feel the Padres still won that trade.
Lockridge to IL. Heyward to CF. Joe to platoon in LF.
Merrill was jogging in the OF prior to the last Rockies game. I wonder how long he will be out?
I hope not long. I saw him when he received the Silver Slugger award on the field the other day and he was walking funny. Hammys are a tough one to deal with.
They can take a couple weeks or a couple months. Hoping its the former.
Looks like Wade in CF at least tonight
Will be cool to see Joe. His AAA performance has been a bit passive, but maybe that’s just his game.
Between Lockridge and Merrill, they have 2 good hamstrings. Maybe we can platoon them!
Curious to see what they do on Tuesday and Wednesday against LHP.
I’m guessing they’ll try to cover CF with Wade/Heyward but they’re both left handed and they have been trying to platoon Heyward. If they want to do all righties in the OF that would require Tatis in CF.
Yeah it will be interesting. I thought Joe was a LF-1B only type, but it seems like he played a competent RF last year with Pittsburgh. So I guess you could go Gonzalez-7 Tatis-8 Joe-9 against Boyd and Imanaga.
Think its best to keep Tatis in right. Don’t want to mess too much with the defensive lineup. The lefty/lefty matchup is too overrated sometimes. These are professional athletes, like my coach used to say, “do your job.”
Well Wade is CF tonight. Not sure if he gets the start tomorrow and Wednesday. But realistically it’s only him and Tatis for CF, maybe Heyward. I think the platoon can be overblown, but it definitely makes a difference for guys like Heyward and Wade who are below-average offensively.
I’m not sure what’s to be gained by having Tatis in CF. So they can move who into RF?
Heyward. Heyward is below-average in CF these days. I don’t like Wade in CF either, because he’s “just” fast out there. But the manager has spoken.
Exactly. Moving Tatis out of his position to get a below average bat in RF would get Shildt a lot schidt.
@Padres2025 Tyler Wade’s career slash line against LHP is a brutal .187/.236/.233. You can say the lefty on lefty matchup is overrated as a concept, but that doesn’t change the fact that he has a career 29 wRC+ against lefties implying he’s 71% worse at hitting them than league average.
His job on this team is not to hit lefties. He’s here to be a versatile fill in at multiple positions and to be a good clubhouse guy. If he fills in a few games in CF against RHP that’s not the end of the world but 3 of the next 6 games are against LH SP and it’s really not setting him or the team up for success to put him out there in those games
The same bat (Heyward/Wade) is in the lineup anyway. Why not optimize the defensive alignment? Plus you would have more options to play RF for platoons. The team wants to keep Tatis in RF and just ride out Heyward/Wade in center, so it’s all theoretical now. I guess the silver lining is Merrill probably isn’t that far away.
@Herc33
I agree. The problem with Wade/Heyward in CF is you’re punting an out against lefties (Wade doesn’t hit either side of the platoon well). Swap Tatis to CF and now you could play Joe in RF and Gonzalez in LF against lefties, Heyward in RF and Gonzalez/Joe in LF against righties, and Joe in LF and Heyward in RF for late-inning defensive subs. I’m definitely overanalyzing if Merrill is back within the week, haha. I’m a huge fan of defensive flexibility and knowing Tatis’ athleticism I imagine he’d take to CF like a fish to water. But, it’s all good.
Lockridge, 28, isn’t a big star – LOL
“It will all be temporary, as Merrill will solidify the spot when he returns…”
Dagwood…the Baseball Writers HOF awaits!
Y’all got anymore of them centerfielders in stock? Tati will cover it, right?
DeVries…ya ready!?
No.
Negative Goose…
Oh, you mean the guy batting .172 in High A-ball?
Yes…
And Tirso Ornelas still dosn’t get a chance…
Travis Jankowski was released by CWS last I believe. Good defense and about same offense at BL. Less speed these days. Stopgap if Merrill is out a while.
Resigned with CWS on a minor league deal, but I agree it’d be a solid move if Merrill is out long-term.
Got to see Lockridge play a few times in the minors. He’s a plus energy guy who’s fun to root for. Even though his ceiling is probably a Locastro type one.
Angels will send the Padres Adell for a bag of sunflower seeds.
The Padres’ center field depth is a house of cards. Beyond Jackson Merrill, Brandon Lockridge was their only backup with legit MLB center field experience. Tyler Wade’s glove out there—52.2 innings, mostly shaky reads—leaves runners circling bases too freely, way below the 21% league-average caught-stealing rate (Savant). Connor Joe’s never played center in the bigs, so misplays are a real risk. Jason Heyward’s 2 games in center last year at 35 years old don’t inspire confidence for a comeback nor was it productive at OAA, and Fernando Tatis Jr.’s locked in right field. With no clear Plan C, they’re one slip from a defensive mess.
It all depends on Merrill…if he’s just out the minimum or a few days longer (by the end if the weekend). They can scrape by with wade/heyward/Joe in some combination, and really just hope that not many balls are hit to them. But if Merrill will be out for multiple more weeks or more, it’s a huge problem, that they’ll need to go outside the organization to address.
The rosters of most teams carry only a plan B for CF. In short term the Pads are fortunate to have a Plan C (Wade, Heyward, Joe, – who are decent OFers,- etc…) without having to make sacrifices with the 40 man roster. Merrill and Lockridge aren’t out very long.
>Tyler Wade seems to be Plan A.
No. Merrill was Plan A. Wade is Plan C.