Grading the Padres' signing of Miguel Andújar

The San Diego Padres signed an intriguing player who might end up in their starting lineup. What kind of grade does the deal get?

The San Diego Padres are just five days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training in Peoria, AZ. They also still have an incomplete roster, and I’m not just talking about them having 39 guys on the 40-man roster.

As of yesterday morning, I thought the Padres needed to add 1-2 more hitters as well as 1-2 more starting pitchers. Last night, the Padres added a bat but probably left themselves needing at least one more when they signed veteran 3B/LF/DH Miguel Andújar to a one-year contract worth $4 million.

Let’s get into all parts of this transaction…

The Player

Miguel Andújar is a good hitter. He hasn’t always been a good hitter, but he’s a good hitter now.

He’s not a power hitter, don’t be deceived by those 27 HRs he hit for the New York Yankees in 2018. The only other time he hit double-digits on HRs was last year, when he played half the season in a minor league ballpark (although, worth noting that his numbers went up by a lot after being traded from the A’s to the Reds).

Miguel doesn’t even make particularly hard contact, he just makes a bunch of good contact while also walking at a pretty good clip. He’s like if Luis Arráez had worse contact skills but better on-base skills.

Andújar’s not a great fielder by any stretch of the imagination. He has a big arm, but he’s not a natural defender, which is why he’s transitioned to being more of a DH over the last few years. He’s also not particularly fast (he’s never stolen more than 4 bases in a year).

His ability to put up good stats without any standout great skill reminds me a bit of Jurickson Profar, although Profar eventually turned himself into a fantastic defensive left fielder.

The Fit

For reasons that don’t make a ton of sense to me, the Padres have been pretty bad against left-handed pitching. Last season, the difference between the team’s OPS against RHP and LHP was .030.

Also, left-handed and right-handed hitters posted nearly identical slashlines against LHP. That’s not how that’s supposed to go. Against RHP, left-handed batters had an OPS .023 higher than the right-handed hitters. Now that makes sense!

The Padres roster is set up in a way that would make you think they crush LHP because their highly-paid superstars (Tatis, Machado, Bogaerts) are all right-handed. Both Machado and Bogaerts were much better against LHP last season. Tatis, for some reason, was much worse against LHP than he was against RHP.

For his career, Tatis is about equal against both, but he’s always done more damage against RHP (balanced out with a better eye against LHP). It’s possible whatever changes he made to his swing last season left him more vulnerable to lefty pitching.

The 30-year old right-handed Miguel Andújar absolutely crushed lefties last season (.986 OPS), and he’s been getting better against them just about every season. He’s now in San Diego for that, and he’ll likely be the team’s DH any time they’re facing a lefty on the mound.

Over nine seasons, Andújar has played almost exclusive as a 3B/LF/DH. Any push to turn him into the solution at first base, perhaps in a platoon with Gavin Sheets, should probably be viewed skeptically.

The Value

The Padres signed Andújar to a one-year contract for $4 million. This looks to be the exact same contract that Yoan Moncada got from the Angels this offseason. Both players play similar positions (Moncada is pretty strictly a 3B at this point in his career), they’re the same age and they’re coming off seasons where their offense took a jump up from where it had been, with reason to believe that it might be due to drop back down.

Moncada’s got the better track record but Andújar fits better as a lefty-killer who doesn’t mind playing 3B or LF or DH.

At the end of the day, $4 million on the free agent market for an above-average player still in their (supposed) prime feels like a good deal for the Padres. It also fits within their current reported budget constraints.

Potential

After being traded to the Reds in the middle of last season, Andújar slashed an insane .359/.400/.544 in 34 games with Cincinnati. If he did that over an entire season, he’d be an all-star. There’s nothing in his underlying metrics that would imply that he will be able to do that while playing half of his games at Petco Park, except….

In four games at Petco Park, Andújar has a slashline of .462/.500/.538. So maybe he just really likes playing in San Diego?

First-time manager Craig Stammen will be tasked with finding the right ways to tap into Andújar’s strengths while not overexposing his weaknesses. I think, best case scenario, Miguel ends up the team’s full-time DH and finishes the season with average numbers.

FINAL GRADE: B

I won’t say this move blows me away, but viewing it in context, I don’t have any real issues with it.

This is insurance against Sung-Mun Song, just in case he’s not ready to play at the MLB level right away, and backup in case Manny Machado or Ramon Laureano picks up an injury along the way.

This is also just a solid bat to have on your bench or in your DH slot against left-handed pitching, and for not a lot of money. This is a lot better than the veteran Hail Marys like Heyward or Joe last offseason.