Minor League Discussion

#2071 · August 5, 2022, 6:11 am

For Nola (and actually Alfaro) there is always a moving evaluation as whether to move on or hold ... part is who is the alternative and adding that alternative (potential alternative) is a high enough priority to potentially eliminate a different position upgrade.

Having said that ... Nola is playing out as I feared. I saw him as an aging undersized catcher ... and catchers as a rule don't age well after 30. Adding him in 2020 made sense given the need at that time (and he was available) but now? Consider:

2020 ... age 30 ... wRC+127 ... dWAR +6.0

2021 ... age 31 ... wRC+100 ... dWAR +3.0

2022 ... age 32 ... wRC+84 ... dWAR -4.9

Hard to expect a reversal in that trend at age 33 next season ... and even if his handling of pitchers / game calling are superior, that decline should have the Padres looking for an overall upgrade. Plus Melvin has expressed is preference for defense at the catching slot ... both the mechanics creating dWAR and the handling the pitchers / game calling not captured by dWAR.

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#2072 · August 5, 2022, 6:18 am

Internal options:

Gallagher /Sullivan and Campusano

FREE AGENTS 2022-23

Tucker Barnhart (32)

Curt Casali (34)

Jason Castro (36)

Robinson Chirinos (38)

Willson Contreras (31)

Austin Hedges (30)

Andrew Knapp (31)

Sandy Leon (34)

Martin Maldonado (36) – $5MM vesting option

Omar Narvaez (31)

Roberto Perez (34)

Kevin Plawecki (32)

Austin Romine (34)

Gary Sanchez (30)

Kurt Suzuki (39)

Christian Vazquez (32)

Stephen Vogt (38)

Mike Zunino (32)

#2073 · August 5, 2022, 11:28 am

The Arizona Complex League and Dominican Summer League both end on the same day, 23 August. Since we flushed out our top prospects with the "trade for the decades" deal for Soto, you have to be encouraged by some of these lower level prospects. I don't think I've seen this many solid performances from both hitters and pitchers at these lower levels in years. Kudos to the Padres scouting team for bringing in so many promising players into the game and, as I understand it, we have the #1 catcher in our grasp for next year. These kind of signings, like V. Acosta and Susana, and Preciado and Mena before them that are desired by other teams, will allow us to be a force in the post-season this year and hopefully beyond.

I understand that performance at this level has to be taken into context, however, the peripherals on kids that are 16-18 are very good and a I look forward to their development and impact next year.

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#2074 · August 5, 2022, 3:26 pm

Quote from Randy Manese on August 5, 2022, 11:28 am

Kudos to the Padres scouting team for bringing in so many promising players into the game and, as I understand it, we have the #1 catcher in our grasp for next year.

Who is "the #1 catcher" you are referring to here?

#2075 · August 5, 2022, 3:26 pm

Complete opposite perspective. Those kind of signings come every year because every year you have a new pool. What made us dangerous is that we had so much high upside talent that we had 2-3 classes getting held up in AZL, SSA, FW. When someone wasn't performing you could send them back to the complex and have another actual prospect as their replacement. This year LE was devoid of that, comprised mostly of non-prospects. You could pay attention to 5 guys at the bottom of the system and be fine.

Go look at the ages on those 2017-19 FW teams and compare to 2022 LE.

Quote from LynchMob on August 5, 2022, 3:26 pm

Who is "the #1 catcher" you are referring to here?

Ethan Salas.