BREAKING: Padres-Twins complete opening day trade
The San Diego Padres have traded Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagan to get themselves a potential closer and a potential starting LF. Not a bad way to start the day.
On the morning of opening day, mere hours before MLB teams have to set their rosters for the first game of the season, the San Diego Padres have completed yet another trade. This time with the Minnesota Twins.
Leaving the Padres are Chris Paddack, who plays a position of great depth for the 2022 Padres and has struggled to recapture his rookie form, and Emilio Pagan, who was unquestionably the worst reliever on the 2021 Padres.
Coming to the Padres are a couple of guys that fill a couple of holes San Diego still had.
Taylor Rogers
A 30-year old reliever with some closing experience, Taylor Rogers has gotten better every season he’s been in the bigs. Last year, he made the all-star team despite only appearing in 40 games. He’s never posted an MLB ERA+ under 107, and his FIP last year was a ridiculous 2.13.
The Padres needed at least one reliable name for the backend of their bullpen, and they probably needed another lefty. Both of those problems will, in theory, be solved by the return of Drew Pomeranz. But it’s always nice to have a backup plan, especially since we have no idea if/when Pomeranz will return.
This is a huge upgrade over Emilio Pagan, in my opinion. Why would the Twins deal him? Well, just like Sean Manaea, he makes a bit of money (in this case, $7.3M) and he’s a free agent at the end of the season. If you are not a contending team, you take players like that and turn them into less of a salary cap burden and/or another player that is under contract longer.
Brent Rooker
The Padres still haven’t solved their backup CF issue, but they should have enough corner outfielders now to handle everything else.
Adding to a group that already includes Wil Myers, Matt Beaty and Jurickson Profar, the Padres now hold the rights to Brent Rooker.
Brent Rooker plays mostly LF, some RF and 1B, and is coming off a disappointing rookie year at the plate. Rooker is old for a prospect (27) and, as we’re familiar with, seems like he got his development derailed by the pandemic in 2020.
Here’s what he did at triple-A in 2019: .281/.398/.535 with 14 HRs and a .933 OPS. That’s the profile of a fantastic hitter! He was ready to take the leap in 2020 and then, like MacKenzie Gore and Luis Campusano and Ryan Weathers can tell us, there wasn’t really a way to do that.
He played in only 7 games for the Twins in 2020, and crushed it: .316/.381/.579 for a ridiculous .960 OPS. If he does that over an entire season, he’s an all-star.
In 2021, Rooker got his shot. He played in 58 games and finished with over 200 PAs. His slash was .201/.291/.397 for an OPS of .688. According to his defensive ratings, he was a bit of a trainwreck in that respect as well.
But if you dig deeper into his rookie season numbers, there’s definitely reason for hope. Here’s his OPS by month:
April/March: .375
(sent down to triple-A and posts a .931 OPS)
July: .986
August: .633
September/October: .975
There’s a .900+ OPS hitter in there somewhere, he just has to get past some of his rookie mistakes and iron out the consistency. And spring training did him no favors.
In 16 spring training ABs, he got 1 hit (a double) and 3 walks against 5 strikeouts. It’s a small sample size OPS of .336. Maybe it was just a bad few weeks, maybe he’s a slow starter, or maybe he needs more seasoning in triple-A.
Either way, if the Padres believe in their development, they seemingly just added a really interesting offensive piece to their lineup and a potential solve for starting LF.
The Victor Caratini trade
This is what I was going to write about before the trade above broke, but I’ll make it short. I promise.
There was no place for the Padres to carry four catchers into the season. I thought they might keep Campusano as the 3rd/backup DH and get rid of Jorge Alfaro, but I was wrong on both.
Luis Campusano has been sent down to start the season in triple-A (MacKenzie Gore, too), and Victor Caratini was shipped to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for a couple of decent prospects that won’t make an impact in 2022.
Turning your surplus into something that makes more sense for your organization is always a great move, but I do hesitate to feel optimistic about Jorge Alfaro. His career OPS of .707 means he’s a worse hitter than Campusano is projected to be, no matter how outlandish the 1.462 OPS he posted in Peoria was.
I’m sure Alfaro will be a fine backup catcher, the way Caratini was, but I remain frustrated that it will take another injury for Campusano to get another call up to the majors.
Happy Opening Day!
The San Diego Padres play a real and meaningful baseball game today. That’s about all I’m going to be able to think about all day.
Very unofficially, me and my podcast co-host Craig Elsten are going to be watching tonight’s game from Bottle Rocket in downtown San Diego this evening. If you want to stop by and say hi, I’d love to meet you.