{"id":408542,"date":"2026-01-14T11:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T11:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/408542\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T11:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T11:33:13","slug":"padres-desperate-low-cost-bet-exposes-a-brutal-corner-depth-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/408542\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres\u2019 desperate low-cost bet exposes a brutal corner depth problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5g\">One of the Padres&#8217; greatest strengths is maintaining exceptional depth on the roster, and A.J. Preller always makes sure to address that need at least once or twice each offseason.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5j\">The latest example of this was the singing of KBO star Sung-mun Song, who logged a .917 OPS in his 2025 season with the Kiwoom Heroes.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5m\">We\u2019ve also seen Preller hit on guys like Bryce Johnson, an outfielder who provides defense, speed, and the ability to hold his own at the plate. And of course, the bullpen is as deep as it gets compared to any other team.<\/p>\n<p>Padres\u2019 Jose Miranda bet is small, but the roster problem it exposes isn\u2019t<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5s\">Back in December, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2025\/12\/padres-to-sign-jose-miranda-to-minor-league-deal.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Padres signed former Minnesota Twins infielder Jose Miranda<\/a> to a minor league contract. A corner infielder, Miranda obviously won\u2019t start with Manny Machado being the guy manning the hot corner, but as we mentioned, depth never hurts.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5v\">Miranda, 27, had a dismal 2025 season with the Twins. Appearing in only 12 games, Miranda slashed .167\/.167\/.250 with a -0.3 bWAR. This lack of production raises questions about how strong the depth is at the corner infield positions.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5y\"><a href=\"https:\/\/friarsonbase.com\/manny-machado-pulled-off-a-padres-feat-in-2025-nobody-saw-coming-01kdr5hce41x\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Machado played 159 of the team\u2019s 162 games last season<\/a>, as he is an absolute workhorse. But, he is beginning to age, and it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if manager Craig Stammen gave Machado a few rest days here and there.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"61\">For that to happen, the Padres must sign someone who would actually provide value on offense, something that Miranda hasn\u2019t been able to do in his time in the major leagues.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"64\">On top of that, the Padres still need to figure out what the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heraldstandard.com\/uncategorized\/2026\/jan\/11\/pirates-finalize-2-year-deal-with-ohearn-b1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">plan is at first base with Ryan O\u2019Hearn<\/a> being long gone. The team also needs to make a decision on whether or not they <a href=\"https:\/\/friarsonbase.com\/padres-strange-free-agent-lull-hints-a-major-roster-move-is-looming-01kemps0verz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">want to trade away Jake Cronenworth<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-darkGrey my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"67\">The corner infield depth is one thing that needs to be addressed, but we can\u2019t forget the other needs that Preller needs to figure out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the Padres&#8217; greatest strengths is maintaining exceptional depth on the roster, and A.J. Preller always makes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-408542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}