Padres Rumors

Padres Showing Interest In Michael Wacha

By Anthony Franco | February 13, 2023 at 6:03pm CDT

The Padres have recently checked in with righty Michael Wacha, reports Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. San Diego has also shown recent interest in veteran southpaw Cole Hamels as part of his comeback effort, according to Acee.

Those hurlers are in very different spots of their careers. Wacha is the best remaining free agent starting pitcher and the only hurler who made MLBTR’s top 50 free agents at the start of the offseason who is still unsigned. The 31-year-old is coming off a solid season for the Red Sox, making good on a $7MM free agent deal to turn in a 3.32 ERA across 23 starts and 127 1/3 innings.

Wacha’s camp apparently entered free agency with a fairly lofty goal on the heels of that showing. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported last month his camp had been seeking around $30MM over two seasons. There hasn’t seemed to be sufficient interest from the market to push prices to that level, and Acee suggests Wacha’s asking price has lowered as the regular season draws nearer.

On the surface, a $15MM average annual value over two years isn’t an outlandish ask for a pitcher who posted such a strong ERA during his platform year. However, there are a handful of other indicators that raise questions about Wacha’s ability to sustain upper mid-rotation production. The 2022 season was the first in four years in which the veteran hurler allowed fewer than four earned runs per nine innings and came on the heels of consecutive campaigns with an ERA above 5.00. Wacha’s peripherals weren’t dramatically different from those of his prior showings.

Last year’s 20.2% strikeout rate was his lowest since 2019, as was his 9.5% swinging strike percentage. Wacha’s average fastball speed was at exactly 93 MPH after sitting at 93.6 MPH and 93.8 MPH, respectively, in 2020-21. His ground-ball rate was up a couple percentage points relative to his past couple years and he demonstrated the above-average control he’s owned throughout his career. Yet the most significant difference in 2022 was that opponents hit only .260 on balls in play after combining for a .324 BABIP between 2020-21.

Of course, there’s room for Wacha’s ERA to regress while still remaining palatable. Thanks largely to his plus strike-throwing, he’s posted a SIERA between 3.99 and 4.07 in each of the last three seasons. He’s a capable back-of-the-rotation starter, making him a reasonable fit for a win-now San Diego team that’s prepared to take some risk in their starting staff. Converted relievers Nick Martinez and Seth Lugo are respectively penciled into the fourth and fifth rotation spots behind Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish and Blake Snell. The Friars are taking a leap of faith in both pitchers’ ability to hold up as starters — Martinez fared better as a reliever last year, and Lugo hasn’t topped 100 innings since 2018 — and adding a stable veteran like Wacha could alleviate some of the pressure on Martinez and Lugo.

It doesn’t appear San Diego is looking to displace either of that duo from the rotation. Manager Bob Melvin told reporters this afternoon the club had yet to decide whether to proceed with a five-man or six-man starting staff (link via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). That could well depend on the team’s personnel, and bringing in Wacha would likely lead to the expanded rotation. Among internal options, Adrián Morejón, Reiss Knehr, Jay Groome and Pedro Avila are among those could battle for starts if the Friars want to lessen the load on their top five and/or incur any injuries.

The club’s openness to a six-man rotation could play into their interest in Hamels, although he certainly wouldn’t secure a guaranteed rotation job at the time of his signing. The four-time All-Star has had his last three seasons derailed by injuries. He’s started just one MLB game since the start of the 2020 season, missing the past two and a half years as various ailments (most notably recurring shoulder problems) have kept him out of action. He didn’t sign anywhere last year but is hoping for a comeback at age 39.

To that end, the longtime Phillie threw in front of scouts in late January. He’ll have to settle for a minor league contract after two lost seasons but seems likely to get a look from some club in Spring Training if healthy. Hamels is no stranger to the area, having grown up in San Diego and entering pro ball as a first-round pick out of Rancho Bernardo High School back in 2002.

NL West Notes: Padres, Rockies, Tovar, Giants

By Mark Polishuk | February 12, 2023 at 9:00pm CDT

By the 2024 season, the Padres are projected to join the list of teams who pay into Major League Baseball’s revenue-sharing fund, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. The list of revenue-sharing payors is mostly comprised by teams in large markets, and though San Diego is only 26th of 30 teams in terms of market size, the Padres’ huge payroll increase over the last few seasons is likely to change their status, based on projected revenues for the 2023 season. Exact details of the Padres’ spending isn’t known, but the increase in spending has correlating with an increase in sponsorship money and ticket sales at Petco Park.

The huge payrolls aren’t likely to last forever, as Padres CEO Erik Greupner said that “to get to that optimal state in our market, it is going to require a greater contribution coming from our farm system,” so the front office doesn’t have to keep building talent with high-priced acquisitions. But that said, Gruepner noted that “The ultimate validation involves winning a World Series championship. So (increasing revenue to this level) is validation insofar as the investment in the team and the investment in the ballpark and the ballpark experience is yielding increased revenue….We’re in the process of making hay while the sun is out to get the very most out of the team that we’re going to have on the field this year and the excitement around it.”

Padres Sign Yu Darvish To Extension

By Steve Adams | February 10, 2023 at 12:00pm CDT

Feb. 10: Darvish will be paid a $6MM signing bonus and receive a $24MM salary in 2023, tweets Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’ll then be paid $15MM in 2024, $20MM in 2025, $15MM in 2026 and $14MM apiece in 2027-28. The contract also contains a full no-trade clause, and any Cy Young win in the contract’s first five seasons would boost his 2028 salary by $1MM.

Feb. 9: The Padres have locked up a second key member of the rotation for the long haul. San Diego announced a new six-year contract with right-hander Yu Darvish that’ll keep him in the fold through the 2028 season. The deal reportedly guarantees the Wasserman client $108MM overall. Since Darvish had already been under contract for $18MM for 2023, it’s five years and $90MM in new money.

It’s a remarkable contract when considering Darvish’s age, although at an average annual value of $18MM, Darvish hardly needs to perform like an ace in order to continue to justify the price tag. That’s the same AAV the Phillies committed to Taijuan Walker this offseason, for instance, and over the life of the new contract, the AAV for high-end pitching only figures to continue to increase. That said, any long-term deal running through a pitcher’s age-41 season — Darvish will turn 42 about six weeks before the contract ends — is obviously teeming with risk.

As things currently stand, however, Darvish remains among the game’s best starters. The right-hander’s age-35 campaign saw him pile up 194 2/3 innings of 3.10 ERA ball with strikeout and walk rates (25.6% and 4.8%) that were far better than league average (particularly the walk rate). Darvish’s 95 mph average fastball was actually the second-best mark of his career, and those 194 2/3 fames were the second-highest single-season total he’s logged since signing with the Rangers back in 2012.

Darvish had Tommy John surgery back in March 2015, missing the entirety of that season and a substantial chunk of the 2016 campaign while recovering. His 2018 season with the Cubs, who originally signed him to the six-year $126MM deal on which he’d previously been playing, was limited to just 40 innings thanks to a triceps injury. Since that time, however, Darvish has been quite durable. He made all 12 of his starts during the shortened 2020 season, and in each of his past three 162-game seasons, he’s taken the hill at least 30 times.

The Padres had been set to lose both Darvish and Blake Snell to free agency following the 2023 season, with both heading into the final seasons of their respective contracts. Darvish, however, now looks likely to not only remain in San Diego but finish out his career as a member of the Padres under president of baseball operations A.J. Preller, who played a major role in signing Darvish when he was in the Rangers’ front office. Darvish joins San Diego native Joe Musgrove, who inked a five-year extension last summer, as the bedrock of the Padres’ rotation for the foreseeable future.

Keeping Darvish under contract is of particular benefit with the final two spots on the starting staff already going to relievers who’ll be making the shift to full-time starters in 2023: Nick Martinez and Seth Lugo. Both players have player options on their contracts for 2024, meaning if things go smoothly they’ll likely opt out of the contracts and test free agency on the heels of improved platform seasons. If the shift to starting roles don’t work out, then the Padres will obviously be seeking alternative options, be they in-house or external acquisitions. Either way, prior to the Darvish extension it was possible — if not downright likely — that San Diego would’ve entered the 2023-24 offseason in search of as many as four starting pitchers. That’s no longer the case.

Darvish carries extra importance from a long-term vantage point when considering the Padres’ dealings in recent years. Preller is among the sport’s most aggressive executives on the trade market, and with the Friars in an all-out, win-at-all-costs blitz, they’ve shown little concern with dismantling their once-vaunted farm system as a means of bringing in Major League talent. Trades of names like MacKenzie Gore, Chris Paddack, Cal Quantrill and Luis Patino have depleted the organization’s pitching pipeline, while the general attrition (injuries and/or poor performances) from the remaining prospects like Ryan Weathers, Adrian Morejon and Pedro Avila leave the system without much immediate help on the horizon.

Beyond the sheer need for long-term help in the rotation, there’s surely an element of financial creativity at play here. Darvish’s preexisting six-year, $126MM contract came with a $21MM luxury hit (based on the contract’s AAV). Since this new deal is being tacked onto the end of that old contract, it effectively becomes an 11-year, $216MM deal. That comes with a reduced luxury hit of $19.64MM. It’s not a major savings, but the Padres were right up against the third tier of luxury penalization, so any newly created breathing room is quite welcome. Once crossing into that third luxury tier, a team is penalized not only in the form of steeper tax rates but also by having their top pick in the next year’s draft dropped by 10 places.

The Darvish extension puts some distance between the team and that particularly undesirable slap on the wrist. It also makes things slightly easier for Preller and his staff if they hope to remain under that tax level but still want to create some wiggle room for in-season acquisitions on the trade market.

The deal is also heavily front-loaded, with Darvish’s 2023 salary jumping from $18MM to $30MM. That leaves $78MM to be distributed over the final five years. That’s of particular note given changes in the recent collective bargaining agreement, which stipulate that upon being traded, only the remainder of a player’s contract counts toward the new team’s luxury tax. Previously, the tax hit would remain the same. In other words, a potential trade of Darvish down the road will come with a considerably lighter luxury hit for an acquiring team by virtue of the contract’s front-loaded nature. Of course, with the full no-trade protection he’s been granted, that could very well end up a moot point.

If the $273MM tax barrier remains a hard stopping point for the Padres once the season’s underway, that’ll likely require the Padres to convince a trade partner to include some money or take on a contract in return. Nonetheless, this extra bit of space could prove useful in accommodating more complementary additions like bullpen help or added bench depth. Alternatively, it could provide necessary space to eventually select the contract of a non-roster veteran with a salary of modest note — someone like reliever Craig Stammen or catcher Pedro Severino, for instance.

As we saw with the Padres’ 11-year signing of Xander Bogaerts — and their reported overtures toward Aaron Judge and Trea Turner — the team is clearly comfortable paying a player into his early 40s if it means lowering the overall luxury bill. All of those offers, Bogaerts and Darvish included, featured annual rates comfortably shy of where the players might have otherwise landed on a more conventional structure. Darvish’s newly added $90MM in guarantees, for instance, could perhaps have been obtained over a three- or certainly a four-year deal had he opted to play out the final season of his contract and return to free agency. Instead, he’ll effectively take three- or four-year money and spread it out over a five-year extension of his contract in order to remain with a contending team and a setting where he’s clearly comfortable.

Those benefits, in the end, are generally secondary. The Padres clearly had a desire to extend Darvish, and likely agreed upon the requisite dollars before determining the length of the contract and, thereby, the extent to which they could tamp down their tax bill. The end result is that Darvish and Musgrove will continue to form a formidable one-two punch in the years to come. And while paying Darvish in his age-40 and age-41 seasons might prove an untenable outcome, it also perhaps creates some present-day savings in terms of luxury taxes that will make those final years a bit easier to stomach.

AJ Cassavell and Mark Feinsand of MLB.com first reported Darvish and the Padres had agreed to a six-year, $108MM contract. Feinsand reported it was a front-loaded deal that contained a $30MM salary for 2023.

Each MLB Team’s Players On WBC Rosters

By Darragh McDonald | February 9, 2023 at 7:30pm CDT

The World Baseball Classic is returning this year, the first time since 2017. The quadrennial event was supposed to take place in 2021 but was scuttled by the pandemic, now returning after a six-year absence. Rosters for the tournament were announced today and those can be found at this link. Here is a breakdown of which players from each MLB team are set to take participate. Quick caveat that this list is fluid and might be changed as more information becomes available.

Without further ado…

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

Padres Expected To Pursue Extension With Manny Machado

By Darragh McDonald | February 9, 2023 at 4:54pm CDT

The Padres already grabbed headlines earlier today by agreeing to an extension with Yu Darvish that runs through 2028. It seems the next order of business will be Manny Machado, with Dennis Lin of The Athletic reporting that the club is expected to explore a long-term deal with their third baseman prior to Opening Day. Machado’s current deal runs through 2028 but he can opt out after the upcoming campaign.

After many excellent seasons with the Orioles and a brief cameo with the Dodgers, Machado hit the open market before the 2019 season. The Padres ended up winning the bidding by signing him to a 10-year, $300MM contract, though one that afforded him the ability to opt out and return to free agency after the fifth year. The first season of the deal was a bit disappointing by Machado’s standards, as he hit .256/.334/.462 for a wRC+ of 109. He also had to play 37 games at shortstop while Fernando Tatis Jr. was on the injured list, which dragged down his defensive numbers on the season. Machado finished the year with 2.2 wins above replacement per the calculations of FanGraphs, still solid but a big drop from the 7.0 fWAR he posted the year prior.

Since then, however, he’s been largely back to his old self, with the most recent campaign arguably the best he’s ever had. He hit 32 home runs and stole nine bases in 2022, finishing the year with a .298/.366/.531 batting line and 152 wRC+. Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating thought his glovework was subpar, but Machado posted eight Outs Above Average. His 7.4 fWAR was the highest tally of his career and trailed only Aaron Judge among all position players on the year. He finished second in the National League Most Valuable Player voting with Paul Goldschmidt taking the trophy.

If Machado’s 2023 campaign is even half as good as that, he should be looking at a fairly easy opt-out choice at the end of it. The original deal was structured evenly, with Machado getting a $20MM signing bonus and $10MM salary in 2019, with $30MM salaries in each season after. That means he currently has six years and $180MM remaining as of this moment, but will be down to five years and $150MM once he has to make his decision.

Machado is 30 years and will be 31 this winter, when he could theoretically be a free agent. That’s a different situation than when he was first on the open market as a 26-year-old, but a huge deal should still be attainable, especially when looking at the deals that star players have been signing lately. Judge is just about to turn 31 and secured himself a nine-year, $360MM deal that runs through his age-39 campaign. Trea Turner is about to turn 30 but got himself an 11-year, $300MM deal into his age-40 season. Carlos Correa had two separate deals scuttled by concerns over the long-term health of his ankle and still secured himself a $200MM guarantee over six years with four vesting options. Jacob deGrom is about to turn 35 and has missed significant time recently but still got $185MM over five years.

The Padres have shown that they’re not afraid to give out these kinds of deals. A couple of months ago, they gave 30-year-old Xander Bogaerts an 11-year, $280MM contract and just today agreed to keep Darvish around through his age-41 campaign. Keeping all that mind, an MVP-level talent like Machado should be able to easily find himself a guarantee larger than the five years and $150MM he’ll be sitting on at season’s end. If he were to opt out, he would arguably be the second-best free agent available in next winter’s class, behind only Shohei Ohtani. That potentially creates a situation where the ticking clock ratchets up the tension throughout the year and perhaps the club would prefer to get something done now in order to avoid that distraction.

The Padres don’t exactly have a clear long-term payroll, as Bogaerts is under contract through 2033 and Tatis 2034, but they’ve shown a clear willingness to be flexible in getting deals done when they want to. In the short term, they might have to think about the competitive balance tax, as they have been hovering around the $273MM third tier recently. If they finish the season above that line, they will not only pay higher tax rates but will also see their top pick in the 2024 draft bumped back by ten spots. Since the luxury tax is calculated by a contract’s average annual value, perhaps the Padres try to spread out a new deal in order to lower the CBT hit.

Whatever form the contract eventually takes, it seems the Padres would rather keep Machado around than see him dive back into the free agent waters. We shall find out in the next little while if they can get something done before Opening Day, which is now about seven weeks away.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By MLB Outfielder Brent Rooker

By Tim Dierkes | February 9, 2023 at 12:00pm CDT

After being drafted by the Twins in the 38th round out of Mississippi State, Brent Rooker went back to college for another year. That move paid off, as the Twins took him again in the first round in 2017. At the time, Baseball America ranked the outfielder/first baseman as a top 100 prospect in the game, writing, “He projects as a middle-of-the-order weapon with power as a strong carrying tool.”

Rooker reached Triple-A in 2019. The minor league season was cancelled in 2020, but Rooker was able to make his MLB debut in September of that year. In his sixth game in the Majors, he went deep off the Cardinals’ Daniel Ponce de Leon. Unfortunately, Rooker’s forearm was fractured on a hit-by-pitch not long after that.

The surgery for that injury went well, and Rooker was back in the bigs in April of ’21. The left fielder showed promise that year, popping nine home runs in 213 plate appearances for the Twins. One highlight: a four-hit effort against the Rays, including a home run off Evan Phillips.

The Padres were drawn to Rooker, as they acquired him along with Taylor Rogers in the April 2022 trade that sent Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagan to Minnesota. After a few brief big league looks for San Diego, the Padres traded Rooker to the Royals in August of ’22 for Cam Gallagher. Finally, in November of last year, the A’s claimed Rooker off waivers from the Royals.

A whirlwind 2022 season saw Rooker as a member of four different organizations. He still managed to hit 28 home runs in 365 plate appearances at Triple-A. Rooker joins an A’s team that currently projects to have Ramon Laureano and Seth Brown at the outfield corners and Aledmys Diaz at DH. The 28-year-old Rooker appears to have little left to prove at Triple-A and is in a good place to compete for playing time as a right-handed power bat.

As Brent notes, he’s at least above replacement level at Twitter, and you should follow him @Brent_Rooker12. Brent volunteered to chat with MLBTR readers today, and we’re happy to have him! Click here to read the transcript of the chat, where Brent talks about everything from the mental weight of a serious injury, the biggest gaps between Triple-A and the Majors, his favorite teammates/toughest opponents, clubhouse food spreads and more!

Padres Sign Tim Lopes, Rangel Ravelo To Minor League Deals

By Darragh McDonald | February 8, 2023 at 5:49pm CDT

The Padres today announced a list of players that will be in camp as non-roster invitees, with utility players Tim Lopes and Rangel Ravelo among them, indicating that they have been signed to minor league deals.

Lopes, 29 in June, got into 94 major league games over the 2019-2021 period with the Mariners and Brewers. In that time, he hit .246/.310/.352 for a wRC+ of 85. Though that offensive production was 15% below league average, he contributed in other ways by stealing 11 bases and taking the field at second, third and the infield corners. He was outrighted by Milwaukee after 2021 and elected free agency, signing a minor league deal with the Rockies for 2022. He got into 73 games on the farm for them and hit .276/.339/.476 for a wRC+ of 100. He also stole 11 bases and suited up at the three infield position to the left of first base as well as the outfield corners.

Ravelo, 31 in April, got a taste of the majors with the Cardinals in 2019 and 2020. He hit .189/.250/.351 in a small sample of 42 games while playing first base and the outfield corners and was non-tendered at the end of the latter campaign. He signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers for 2021 and crushed it in his first 26 Triple-A games, producing a batting line of .407/.504/.758. He then signed with the NPB’s Orix Buffaloes but only got into two games that year. In 2022, he got into 24 contests with the Buffaloes but hit just .138/.296/.207. More recently, he’s been playing for the Cardenales de Lara of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, hitting .324/.441/.514 in 32 games.

Both players will give the Padres a little bit of extra non-roster depth. Lopes has a bit more positional versatility but Ravelo has occasionally impressed a bit more at the plate. The Padres have a fairly stacked lineup but their bench might feature some relatively inexperienced options in Brandon Dixon, José Azocar and Matthew Batten. Injuries are also inevitable and depth pieces will surely be required throughout the season. If either player cracks the roster at any point, they each have between one and two years of service time, meaning they could be affordably retained for the foreseeable future. Lopes also has a couple of option years, though Ravelo has exhausted his.

Quick Hits: Narvaez, Gallo, Monfort, Tatis Jr., Mets

By Simon Hampton | February 4, 2023 at 1:20pm CDT

Omar Narvaez signed a one-year, $8MM deal (with a $7MM player option for 2024) with the Mets just before Christmas, and Will Sammon of The Athletic shed a little more light on the market for the veteran backstop before he eventually wound up in New York. Sammon notes that the Giants strongly considered a move for Narvaez while the Twins, Tigers and Reds all had varying levels of interest.

The Giants have since inked Roberto Perez, the Reds are set with the trio of Tyler Stephenson, Curt Casali and Luke Maile while the Twins signed Christian Vazquez to the position. The Tigers are an interesting one though, as they’ve only added Triple-A backstop Donny Sands in a trade with the Phillies. They’re set to use some combination of Eric Haase, Jake Rogers and Sands in 2023 but it’s interesting to hear they were at least interested in a higher profile addition there this winter. If they do still look to add an external catcher, Gary Sanchez, Robinson Chirinos and Kevin Plawecki are the remaining notable catchers on the market.

Here’s some more bits and pieces from around baseball:

Joey Gallo could be set to see a bit of time at first base in 2023. As Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic noted in a recent mailbag, Gallo could well be the back up first baseman to Alex Kirilloff. That’s not to say Gallo will be on the bench, as the former Ranger, Yankee and Dodger will get plenty of reps in the outfield, but if Kirilloff’s struggles extend into 2023 the Twins could utilize Gallo a fair bit at the position. He rates well as a defender in the outfield, and has made just one appearance at first since 2018 but he’s also graded out solidly defensively at first in his time there.
Rockies owner Dick Monfort made headlines recently when he boldly stated he thought the Rockies could play .500 ball this season. That’d be a big ask in a competitive NL West, and the Rockies have done little to improve on their 68-94 record in 2022. Whatever record they wind up with this year, Monfort – in an interview with Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post – said they wouldn’t go down the rebuilding path: “I guess the connotation on rebuilding is you just get rid of everybody. You try to draft low, which we’re not [going to do]. We’re not trying to get the first pick. We’re not going to tank. We never have, never will,” Monfort said.
With the Padres adding Xander Bogaerts on a long-term deal and still having Manny Machado under contract for at least the next season, the left side of their infield appears set. Of course, that led to an expectation that Fernando Tatis Jr. would head to the outfield moving forward. That still looks to be the case, although the player didn’t commit to a position and said he’s been working out in both the infield and outfield this winter (via Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Tribune-Review). It’s been a challenging few seasons for Tatis, but he also added that he’s feeling “as close to 100%” as he’s been the past few seasons after dealing with wrist and shoulder injuries, and is expecting to be a full participant in spring training.
Sammon’s report in The Athletic also includes details on the Mets plans for Tylor Megill and David Peterson. Both players figure to be in and around the team at some stage over the course of the season, but Sammon reports that the team’s ideal scenario would be to have both players go to Triple-A to start the season and work as starters there, rather than starting the season in the big league bullpen. Of course, injuries in the spring could force one or both of them into rotation spots to begin the season anyway, but it seems the Mets are hoping to avoid using them in relief roles to begin the season.

Padres Promote Ryan Christenson To Associate Manager

By Anthony Franco | February 3, 2023 at 5:12pm CDT

The Padres announced their coaching staff for the 2023 season this afternoon. There are a few shakeups for Bob Melvin’s second season leading the San Diego dugout.

Ryan Christenson has been given the title of associate manager. The 48-year-old joined Melvin in making the jump from the A’s to the Padres last offseason. Christenson had been Melvin’s bench coach in Oakland from 2018-21 and took on that same role for his first season in San Diego. He now earns a bump in title to associate manager, though his position as Melvin’s top lieutenant seems unchanged.

Filling the role of bench coach is Ryan Flaherty, who’s going into year four on the San Diego staff. He also gets the title of offensive coordinator, essentially taking on the hitting coach duties vacated when Michael Brdar was poached by the Tigers at the start of the offseason. San Diego will go without anyone assuming the traditional “hitting coach” title.

The 36-year-old Flaherty has spent the past two seasons as a quality control coach. He drew interest from the Mets in their bench coach search last offseason, but the Friars denied New York’s interview request. One year later, the former Orioles infielder gets both that title and the lead hitting responsibilities in San Diego.

He’ll be joined on staff by assistant hitting coaches Scott Coolbaugh and Oscar Bernard. The 56-year-old Coolbaugh joins the Friars after two years as the lead hitting instructor with the Tigers. He’d also previously served as hitting coach in Baltimore and Texas and an assistant role with the White Sox. He brings plenty of coaching experience to help Flaherty in his first crack as offensive coordinator.

Bernard, meanwhile, gets promoted to the MLB staff after seven years as San Diego’s minor league hitting coordinator. The 39-year-old spent some time as a player and instructor in the Cubs’ minor league system before joining the Friars in 2016. It’s the first big league staff job for the Dominican Republic native. Also joining the group is catching coach Brian Esposito. The 43-year-old spent last season managing the Friars’ Low-A affiliate in Fort Wayne.

The rest are holdovers from last season. Ruben Niebla is back for a second year as pitching coach, pairing with bullpen coach Ben Fritz. Matt Williams and David Macias will coach the bases and defense — Williams the infield, Macias the outfield — with Peter Summerville and Herberto Andrade as coaching assistants. Former big league managers Bryan Price and Mike Shildt will reassume the advisory roles they manned in 2022.

Padres Prospect Eguy Rosario Suffers Broken Ankle

By Mark Polishuk | February 3, 2023 at 12:33pm CDT

Padres infield prospect Eguy Rosario suffered a broken ankle during winter ball workouts, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Rosario now faces a lengthy recovery process, as Sanders writes that the infielder won’t be back in action until “midsummer.”

It’s a tough setback for the 23-year-old Rosario, who made his Major League debut with a seven-game cup of coffee last season. Rosario only had six plate appearances in his first trip to the Show, but as Sanders notes, Rosario was expected to contend for a backup infield job this spring. The versatile infielder has played extensively at shortstop, second base, and third base over his minor league career, and also has a handful of games as a first baseman on his resume.

Rosario was an international signing in 2015, and his batting numbers have steadily improved as he has made his way up San Diego’s minor league ladder. While the canceled 2020 minor league season took him off the field entirely, Rosario hit .281/.360/.455 with 12 homers over 480 Double-A plate appearances in 2021, and he then took another step forward with a .288/.368/.508 slash line and 22 home runs over 564 PA at the Triple-A level last year. Rosario also brings speed to his offensive profile, with 72 steals (out of 103 attempts) over his last three minor league campaigns.

MLB Pipeline ranks Rosario fifth on its list of the Padres’ top 30 prospects, while Baseball America has Rosario slotted ninth. BA’s scouting report views Rosario as a utility infield type at the MLB level, with a strong throwing arm helping make up for some defensive miscues (though Rosario is ultimately better suited for second or third base, rather than shortstop). Playing in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League provided at least some inflation to Rosario’s Triple-A numbers, but BA’s report notes that Rosario also worked to add strength to his modest frame of 5’9″ and 150 pounds.

Unfortunately for Rosario, he’ll now have to wait a while longer to resume his playing career, and hope that the ankle injury doesn’t impact his baserunning or mobility in the field. The Padres already have a good amount of infield depth given their signing of Xander Bogaerts and the eventual return of Fernando Tatis Jr. from suspension, but with Rosario out, Brandon Dixon, Matthew Batten, or minor league signing Max Schrock might have a clearer path to a bench job.

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