The Padres announced they’ve selected infielder Luis Rengifo onto the big league roster. He takes the place of Samad Taylor, who lands on the 10-day injured list with a right oblique strain. San Diego already had an opening on the 40-man roster.
Rengifo quickly returns to the big leagues after being released by the Brewers last month. The switch-hitting utilityman signed a minor league deal with San Diego on June 26 and will make his team debut after just six games in Triple-A. Rengifo hit .320 with a couple homers in a brief stint with their top affiliate in El Paso. He hadn’t produced at the big league level this season, batting .205/.280/.254 without a home run in 205 plate appearances for Milwaukee.
It’s the second consecutive down year for Rengifo. He had just a .238/.287/.335 slash with nine longballs in 147 games for the Angels last season. Rengifo was an above-average hitter over the three seasons before that, running a .273/.323/.431 line between 2022-24. He hasn’t been the same since undergoing season-ending wrist surgery in August ’24. There haven’t been any significant changes to his batted ball metrics, though, and he’s swinging harder this year than he did in either of the previous two seasons.
Milwaukee used Rengifo primarily at third base. He also made his first two MLB starts as a first baseman this season and played mostly second base with the Angels. He’s not in the lineup tonight even with Manny Machado day-to-day with a minor toe injury. Sung-Mun Song is starting at the hot corner with Miguel Andujar drawing in as the designated hitter against a right-handed starter in Arizona’s Jose Cabrera.
Taylor’s injury leaves the Padres without their primary left fielder for at least a week and a half. The offseason minor league signee has hit .330 and stolen six bases in 26 games since being called up in the wake of the Ramón Laureano injury. Although Taylor was striking out too often to keep up that kind of offensive pace, he’d provided a much needed spark. Gavin Sheets and Jase Bowen figure to split the left field work for the time being.
Bro, Rengifo is NOT the best option available 🥀
Carlos Rodriguez is right there
The kid in Hi-A?
I like this guy though. Hopefully he can start hitting again.
NOT SAMAD
Wish he was still on the angels
He will do good in San Diego
Can a team 10.5 back in the wild card make up the difference with two plus months left
In baseball anything is possible. The Padres have the talent on paper to perform much better than they have but the odds are long.
I think he’s referring to the Angels, the Dads are 4.5 back of the WC.
Oh, well, never mind. Nah, Anaheim isn’t ever going to turn it around until Arte either dies or sells the team.
Yes. For more details ask the Angels about the 1995 Mariners.
Hey Tony, a 29.4% K rate would not preclude any player from continuing to hit at that rate. What would was his .491 BABIP.
Bingo Fungo! Bummer about Samad. Hope Rengifo auto-corrects the stick and all is well!
Kind of an odd roster fit because they have so many more guys who can play infield as opposed to outfield. I would have thought that Bryce Johnson or Nick Solak would make more sense.
Their bench tonight for example is Rengifo, France, Duran, and Machado because Song is getting the start at 3rd. None of those guys play OF. They could move Sheets to the outfield if needed and I assume Rengifo/Andujar can play there if they’re desperate enough, but seems inefficient to set the roster up this way
Short term solution. All about who they can DFA and not worry about losing in a week or so. Some of those other guys have already been DFA’d and might not stick with El Paso the next time.
Samad Taylor has won himself some fans in the past month. BBref says he’s playing at a 2.53 WAR pace since getting called up. Losing that can’t help.
A lot of times you do not see what is coming.
Like az in the World Series a few years ago.
Who knows.
I like to think I know something.
I know dreams come true.
I keep dreaming until the extra large woman stop singing