Quote from Brian Connelly on January 19, 2021, 8:16 am

Quote from hoffy51 on January 19, 2021, 4:18 am

Not only that. I think he has created a three year window to rebuild the depth in our minor league system.

Exactly!   This team is already top 5 in MLB the next 3 years as the roster is composed.

Remember, anyone fretting over our dwindling Farm system... they exist to build the MLB team.  The better the MLB team, the less & less relevant the #29 or whatever prospect becomes in our system.   In other words, even if we still had the #1 system in MLB, the chance that any prospect would significantly help in future drops as the PADRES get better.

The most dramatic change moving forward starting now will be that the best prospects next 3 years are going to come disproportionately from International signings, since will be picking at tail end of draft.  No more "slotted in top 100 prospects" guys like Hassell going forward, and really not enough draft pool $ total to do the Wilcox, Hudson Head maneuvers.

Quote from Brian Connelly on January 19, 2021, 8:51 am

Quote from fenn68 on January 19, 2021, 4:28 am

With all the moves of minor league talent going back to last year ... the Padres’ 2021 minor league rosters hard to predict .... harder than usual. Then throw in the demise of a short season team.

Padres still have a lot of “bodies” but looking as though some will have to be pulled up a level higher than would have thought just to pull together a complete line-up. The exception to that should be AAA/AA pitching where a lot of bodies that should be at those levels. Conversely, the pitching at A+/A maybe be a bit of the unknown (to at least us fans) built on a bunch of less heralded arms with minimal professional exposure.

Let us hope that the Padres have that “next wave” of talent ready to emerge out of the players who were tucked in TC/AZ/DSL and they create a fun follow in 2021.

 

Minors FA & Rule 5 signed vs those lost+ retired is roughly a wash.  But Pads just this offseason have traded 17 players out with only Zach Davies an MLB lock.  Have received 2 prospects back in trade.  So a net of up to 14 guys out of Minors system.

Trade deadline was more 40-man roster guys, but still, between then & now, Pads have probably dealt away the equivalent of a full Minors team!  With the elimination of the Northwest League, they will likely still have some releases before Spring Training, but it won't be at the epic scale some other teams will have to do to shrink their Farm systems.

For the most part, might as well bring everyone left in to ST to compete for spots.   Biggest question is if they field 2 teams in Arizona again.  Seems like more than enough guys remaining to do so; Pads have a large # of $300K max 2018 International signee position players who played in DSL in 2019 they would probably like to see state-side.  Not sure if they have enough P's though.

Quote from fenn68 on January 19, 2021, 10:01 am

with the Musgrove trade going official this morning ... Head, Cruz, and Bednar come off MLB.com's Padre Top 30 and are replaced by:

#24 Knehr ... RHRP (A+ 2019) ... heard some encouraging things about him

#28 Feole .... LHP (DNP) ... was a top college prospect who had surgery before the draft in 2019 and Padres gambled ... 11th round I think. Not a hard thrower but was an effective pitcher in college

#29 Nix .... RHP (AAA in 2019) ... a blast from the past still hanging on to prospect status

At this point, MLB may be just filling in the banks with old ranking but still interesting.

Quote from Randy Manese on January 19, 2021, 1:51 pm

Padres started releasing names of players cut earlier in the month.  A total of 13 ranging from the Dominican too AA.  Nobody surprising - many players that are older for their current league assignment.

Quote from sdmecmiller63 on January 19, 2021, 4:23 pm

Randy,

Who are those released and where did you see the listing??

Quote from MrPadre19 on January 19, 2021, 4:31 pm

I guess I won’t bother following along with Omar Cruz’s next couple of minor league seasons as I planned.

I’ll  just wait and see if he makes it to the Bigs now.

 

Quote from Randy Manese on January 19, 2021, 5:27 pm

Went to the league pages, list of transactions.  They are dated 13 Jan.  For AA, cut Zimmerman (RHP), Lezama (c) and Benson (OF).  For Ft. Wayne, cut Acevedo and Dean (RHPs).   For Tri-City, cut Sims (RHP).  For Arizona Rookie league teams, cut Asencio & Bailey (RHP), Guerra (1b) and Fernandez (LHP).  Finally, for Dominican, cut Juan Carlos Romero, Sosa and Soto (RHPs).

Quote from Randy Manese on January 19, 2021, 5:28 pm

Supposed to be Briley, not Bailey.

Quote from fenn68 on January 20, 2021, 8:19 am

MLB.com is rolling out its Top 10 by position ... just released LHP.

Gore rated the #1 LHP prospect.

Highest ceiling: Gore
The best pitching prospect in baseball, Gore didn't arrive in the Majors as expected in 2020 because his mechanics got out of sync. But he still has front-of-the-rotation upside with the potential for four plus pitches and control to match, not to mention a deceptive delivery.

I add still only 21.

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note Weathers was NOT on their Top 10 LHP and Morejon has graduated off their lists.