Here come the kids
The Padres' minor league system is starting to bear fruit just when the team is looking for help.
If you read yesterday, as a paid subscriber that got to read past the paywall, you remember me saying that the San Diego Padres had two choices for improving their offense.
Choice one was to trade for a power bat (or two), while the second choice was something akin to standing pat and relying on the emergence of C.J. Abrams and Esteury Ruiz to go along with the (eventual) return of Fernando Tatis Jr. to boost the offense.
I don’t think last night, when the Padres won a game on the moon that they nearly lost because Taylor Rogers is stuck in the bad place, showed any sign of what they are going to do. However, the team called Esteury Ruiz up to its taxi squad. This means he’s with the team and just waiting to be added to the active roster, which is likely to happen today or tomorrow.
Meanwhile, C.J. Abrams has been playing very good baseball as an every day starter for weeks now, but he has yet to have a defining moment that he could hang his hat on. He got it on Monday night.
First, C.J. showed off that he’s a plus-plus defender at shortstop:
That’s just a ridiculous play to make and he’s been making them regularly whenever he’s put at his natural position.
Later, Abrams got a hanging curveball when he was looking fastball. That’s a recipe for success as long as you can keep it fair, which was not a problem in Colorado:
I’ve been saying it for weeks. If you’re trying to field the best team possible, the one that gives you the best chance to win games, then C.J. Abrams is not losing his starting job any time soon. The kid is not only ready, he is already helping them to win games (the HR above ended up being the runs the Padres needed in a one-run win).
I imagine Ruiz is here to fill in for Profar (and maybe steal Grisham’s job). If he plays anything like Abrams has been playing, it’ll be a boon for the Padres’ offense and will be one less thing that A.J. Preller needs to try and trade for.
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