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Padres looking to add another hitter
Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

The Padres were dormant for much of the offseason but sprang to life recently. In the past week, they’ve bolstered the pitching staff with Nick Pivetta and Kyle Hart, as well as bringing Jason Heyward and Connor Joe into the position player mix. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that they would still like to add one more bat, either via trade or free agency.

The Friars lost several hitters to free agency at the end of the 2024 season, with each of Kyle Higashioka, Ha-Seong Kim, Jurickson Profar, Donovan Solano and David Peralta hitting the open market. Kim was the primary shortstop last year and Profar the left fielder. Higashioka took over the catching job during the season. Solano and Peralta each became key part-time players, with the former getting into 96 games and the latter 91.

With seemingly almost no payroll space to work with this winter, the club has had to look for low-cost solutions to fill those holes. Heyward and Joe each got very modest $1MM guarantees and are likely to form a platoon in left, replacing Profar. Elias Díaz was signed a couple of weeks ago to help the catching group, with a $3.5MM guarantee that’s broken up into a $1.5MM salary and $2MM buyout on a mutual option, with that buyout not to be paid until after the season.

At shortstop, the solution was already on the roster. Xander Bogaerts had moved from short to second early in 2024 in deference to Kim, but he moved back to short late in the year when Kim hurt his shoulder. He’ll now stick at short in 2025. That will allow Jake Cronenworth to move from first to second and Luis Arráez, who got a lot of starts as the designated hitter in the second half of 2024, to be the regular first baseman. Manny Machado will be back as the regular third baseman.

Arráez isn’t an amazing defender at first, which raises the possibility of him being a regular designated hitter this year, but it seems the club isn’t viewing it that way. “Our infielder guys — with Louie, Croney, Bogey, Manny — they’re everyday guys,” manager Mike Shildt said, per Acee. “All those guys will have an opportunity to take a DH. But I don’t view Louie and Croney being like some rotation of DH. I think they’re everyday guys that’ll be on the field. Will they get opportunities to get off their feet and DH and create other opportunities to get guys on the field? Yes. But I don’t see that being anything other than those guys are everyday guys, and we expect them to go out and play really good defense and help us win games.”

With that arrangement, and Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill in the other two outfield spots, there’s no obvious designated hitter. Guys like Tirso Ornelas, Eguy Rosario and Brandon Lockridge are on the roster but fairly lacking in experience. Oscar González, Gavin Sheets, Trenton Brooks and others are in camp as non-roster invitees but they each have their flaws, which is why they had to settle for minor league deals.

In terms of the roster, it’s easy to see the Padres fitting another bat in there, pushing those depth options to the bench of Triple-A. Presumably, any addition will be made on a tight budget, like all of their other moves this winter. As mentioned, Heyward, Joe and Díaz were cheap, with the Díaz deal even being semi-backloaded via that option buyout. The same was true of their pitching additions. Hart gets a $1MM salary this year and a $500K buyout. Though Pivetta got $55MM over four years, he’ll only get a $3MM signing bonus and $1MM salary in 2025. Even Michael King’s $7.75MM guarantee to avoid arbitration was broken into a $3MM signing bonus, $1MM salary and $3.75MM buyout on a mutual option.

The free agent market does still feature some bats, with Justin Turner and J.D. Martinez the most notable. Turner got a $13MM deal last offseason but is now 40 years old. Since he’s unsigned in mid-February, perhaps he’s not getting offers at that level again for 2025, despite a solid performance last year. Martinez got $12MM from the Mets last winter but with heavy deferrals and a salary of just $4.5MM. Peralta, who joined the Padres via a minor league deal in May last year, is still out there and won’t cost much. Mark Canha, Yuli Gurriel, Miguel Sanó, Anthony Rizzo, Rowdy Tellez and others are also on the market with limited earning power.

On the trade market, Spencer Torkelson doesn’t have an amazing path to playing time in Detroit and is still in his pre-arbitration years. LaMonte Wade Jr. is only making $5MM this year and could perhaps be pried away from the Giants, though the intra-divisional trade is always tougher to pull off. Starling Marte is going to make $19.5MM this year but the Mets are reportedly willing to pay down his salary in order to facilitate a deal.

This article first appeared on MLB Trade Rumors and was syndicated with permission.

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