Quote from Randy Manese on September 20, 2025, 12:51 pm

Perlaza was signed as a free agent in December 2024, so unless his contract was for more than one year, he becomes eligible to elect free agency approximately a week after the World Series ends, which usually is the 1st week of November (last year was 4 Nov).  Major League teams must freeze their 40 man roster by mid-November for the December Rule 5 draft (last year that date was 19 Nov).

As far as I can determine a player in the minors can be added to the 40 man roster up to the date the rosters must be frozen.  So, if the Padres bring Perlaza up before he can elect free agency in November and put him on their 40 man (maybe when Bogaerts comes back?) - he will not be eligible for free agency.  All it would take is to DFA someone like McCoy to open up a space to make that happen.   Anyone that drives in 110+ runs in a season deserves a long look, in my opinion.

Padres would likely wait until the MLB free agency period, which also happens shortly after the World Series ends, to bring up lesser prospects even those that could elect free agency.  The Padres have a number of Rule 5 eligibles, mostly pitchers, they are likely to protect even though the likelihood of them being drafted is low.  As Fenn has indicated earlier, they can always drop players from the 40 man if they sign more promising free agents for both the MLB and MiLB rosters.

Quote from Jeremy Hill on October 2, 2025, 12:40 am

Salas was replaced by Lamar King Jr on the AFL roster.

Quote from Randy Manese on October 2, 2025, 6:33 am

This concerns me since it looks like the Peoria Javelinas roster was set up for Salas to be their primary catcher.  Is it still a health issue or just a change in strategy as to what is the best way to get him prepared for next season - I hope it is the latter.  Wish the Padres gave out more information regarding pulling him from the AFL and what we can expect from Salas going forward in his career progression with this injury.

Quote from fenn68 on October 2, 2025, 6:59 am

Quote from Randy Manese on October 2, 2025, 6:33 am

This concerns me since it looks like the Peoria Javelinas roster was set up for Salas to be their primary catcher.  Is it still a health issue or just a change in strategy as to what is the best way to get him prepared for next season - I hope it is the latter.  Wish the Padres gave out more information regarding pulling him from the AFL and what we can expect from Salas going forward in his career progression with this injury.

Yeh, a point of concern considering in the Spring the estimate of return was mid-season ... then pushed out ... then pushed to AZ Fall League ... and now ????

I though he was doing some baseball activities recently ... so?

Quote from Randy Manese on October 7, 2025, 5:25 pm

After not pitching competitively at all during the 2025 season, Carson Montgomery was the opening day starter for Peoria and picked up the win.  He only walked one and struck out 3 during his 3 IP, but did give up 5 hits and 1 run.  67% of Montgomery's pitches went for strikes, which is good to very good, and he threw 1 WP.  Padres' RH pitchers Tucker Musgrove and Johan Moreno, both of whom finished strong at the end of their season, tossed 1 scoreless inning each.

Karpathios had a good game as the DH but Scottsdale stole 3 bases off of King (and 3 different pitchers) and he got called for catcher's interference.  While King is going to get a lot of work behind the plate for Peoria, still believe he'd be better off at 1b or one of the corner OF spots - he can run for a big guy and has a decent enough arm to play RF.  Karpathios is Rule 5 eligible this year but unlikely to be drafted.

Quote from fenn68 on October 7, 2025, 6:16 pm

Quote from Randy Manese on October 7, 2025, 5:25 pm

After not pitching competitively at all during the 2025 season, Carson Montgomery was the opening day starter for Peoria and picked up the win.  He only walked one and struck out 3 during his 3 IP, but did give up 5 hits and 1 run.  67% of Montgomery's pitches went for strikes, which is good to very good, and he threw 1 WP.  Padres' RH pitchers Tucker Musgrove and Johan Moreno, both of whom finished strong at the end of their season, tossed 1 scoreless inning each.

Karpathios had a good game as the DH but Scottsdale stole 3 bases off of King (and 3 different pitchers) and he got called for catcher's interference.  While King is going to get a lot of work behind the plate for Peoria, still believe he'd be better off at 1b or one of the corner OF spots - he can run for a big guy and has a decent enough arm to play RF.  Karpathios is Rule 5 eligible this year but unlikely to be drafted.

Good update ... glad so hear some of the very young arms pitched well.

Agree on King moving to 1B/OF as his primary position. With Fermin around for 4 more years and Salas (still a top defensive prospect) on the come plus some lower level catchers that have some promise ... would be good to advance his bat at a position of need in the system ... and 1B/OF fits that criteria.

Quote from Randy Manese on October 7, 2025, 8:34 pm

Someone floated the idea of signing former Padre Franmil Reyes to either a minor league deal with a Spring Training invitation or a one year MLB contract with the dollars somewhere between what Heyward and Iglesias got this year.  The more I think about this possibility, the less ridiculous it seems.  Reyes had two good years in Japan, averaging around 28 HRs and 78 RBIs per year; his batting average was not bad at .282, OPS in the high 800's and just turned 30 years of age.  The downside is that he is strictly a DH (you don't want him anywhere near 1b or LF!), has no speed and has a lot of lot of swing and miss in his game although his K rate in Japan did not exceed 24.5%.

Reyes theoretically would give us a lot of pop off the bench and help us against LH SP as a part-time DH.  Going to be a lot cheaper than Okamoto and maybe just as effective without having to make a long term commitment.  Can't be any worse than Heyward, Gurriel or Joe on offense, so nowhere to go but up.

Oops - this was supposed to go on the 2025-2026 Off-season thread - Sorry!

Quote from Randy Manese on October 9, 2025, 8:47 am

Peoria goes 2-0 with the winning runs batted in by a Ryan Jackson single in the top of the 10th inning.  Jackson went 2-4 overall with a walk and strikeout in his AFL debut.  He played the entire game at shortstop and made a fielding error.  Jackson has a ceiling of a utility player whose best position may be 2b.  Played at 3 levels in 2025 and did relatively well until he hit AA, where his lack of overall hitting tools were exposed; able to draw walks but will struggle to get his slugging average within the acceptable .340-.360 range for a middle infielder.  If he can get a little stronger and still maintain his current flexibility he might have a chance to be more than a 4A player.

Quote from LynchMob on October 9, 2025, 12:20 pm

https://www.mlb.com/news/padres-sign-lan-hong-su

... seems like a looong shot ...