The Padres announced that catcher Martín Maldonado has been released and infielder/outfielder Tyler Wade has been sent outright to Triple-A El Paso. Both players were designated for assignment last week in the wake of the Friars making multiple additions ahead of the trade deadline.
Maldonado has carved out a big league career longer than a decade as a glove-first backstop. However, his previously-excellent glovework has declined as he has pushed into his late 30s. Given his poor offense, his value to a big league club has mostly been reduced to intangibles, such as his clubhouse presence and handling of a pitching staff.
The Padres needed help behind the plate coming into 2025 but had a tight budget. They signed a couple of veterans to cheap deals, adding Elias Díaz for $3.5MM and Maldonado on a minor league deal. Maldonado made the Opening Day roster to form the catching duo with Díaz, but those two have been rough this year. Maldonado hit .204/.245/.327 while Díaz slashed .201/.266/.304.
The Friars have clearly needed help behind the plate and addressed that need at the deadline by acquiring Freddy Fermin from the Royals, which pushed Maldonado off the roster. Maldonado has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. The Padres have skipped that formality and simply released him. He could perhaps come back on a minor league deal or find one with another organization. He also turns 39 years old in a few days, so it’s possible he considers retirement, though that’s entirely speculative.
Wade, 30, is a glove-first utility guy. He has hit just .206/.309/.252 this year and .216/.294/.284 in his career but can be a useful bench player since he can steal bases and provide defensive versatility. He has played every position on the diamond except for catcher and first base.
This is the second time he’s been outrighted by the Padres this year. The first came after he didn’t break camp with the club out of spring training. He could have elected free agency while retaining his $900K salary but decided to stick with the organization. He was selected back to the roster just over a week later and stuck on the roster until last week.
He now has the right to elect free agency again. Since he stuck with the Padres last time, he might do so again. On the other hand, the position player group is far stronger now. The Padres added Ryan O’Hearn, Ramón Laureano and Fermin ahead of the deadline. They also grabbed Will Wagner from the Blue Jays and have him on optional assignment, alongside Mason McCoy and Tirso Ornelas. Perhaps the path back to the big leagues has become too steep and Wade will elect free agency to look for opportunities elsewhere.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images
Double *phew*
Go Pads!
Gotta fill that former-Yankees void. Go get J.T. Brubaker 😛
Don’t tempt us with your illgotten goods…! 🤙🏽🤪🤙🏼
Nah, they’ll sign Marcus Stroman and add him to AJ’s Yankees Infinity Stones alongside King and Cortes
Plus Sears, Vasquez, Wandy… haha
I forgot Sears was a former Yank lol
Marinaccio… dang, still feels like I’m missing one or two!
Baltimore should reach out to Maldonado.
Cannot possibly disagree more
Can you probably disagree more?
Or just promote Basallo.
Maybe Basallo is another overrated prospect and they don’t want to expose him. Possibly use him as trade bait for a starting pitcher?
The players love having Wade on the team but the bench is a lot stronger now.
I’m happy the GatorWade cheerleader can stay in the Org! Happy trails Maldy, time to coach.
Love to see Maldonado back as a coach this season if some other team doesn’t pick him up in FA.
“but had a tight budget”
No Darragh, they had a budget, period. They increased spending more than 26 other teams. Only 3 teams increased their spending more. so the Padres budget was not tight. Your continuing bad takes astound me.
Try reporting the facts and leave the opinion pieces to other writers.
It’s just regurgitated and lazy sports beat babble… I wouldn’t necessarily hold any specific writer’s feet to the fire, but they are all guilty of repeating the falsity ad nauseum. Cheers PF
It’s like the padres need to apologize for going over the second tax tier.
Yes they don’t have unlimited money but they also spent more than most.
Padres, apologize for exceeding (some of) your fans expectations…
It’s not Jesse Chavez territory, but still interesting Maldonado was traded 4 times.
Nobody is in Jesse Chavez territory, except maybe Edwin Jackson and Rich Hill.
“Tight budget”…I tend to agree. When you think of “tight budgets” you certainly don’t think of teams that employ or recently employed Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis and Xander Bogarts, easily some of the highest paid players in the game.
It’s fairly easy to name 15-20 teams that have a much “tighter budget” than do the San Diego Padres, a very free spending organization these last several years.
They also have about 85%+ of their team back next year.
It keeps us responding. The Friars are a large part of what keeps this site up and running. Aside from the Dodgers’ spending this past off-season, no other team has gotten the kind of run that the Padres have…
the most important thing to happen today in MLB has not been mentioned at all on this website. I am disappointed in your writers Tim Dierkes.
If what you are talking about is what I think it is, it’s not relevant to the site. Writing about it is likely to attract hundreds of political comments anyways.
political how?
Are we talking about Jen Pawol? She should do fine. She pulls home plate duty in the series finale on Sunday.
Face it, Marty, the knees are gone. Take the money and run. Congrats on a respectable career.