{"id":459018,"date":"2026-02-07T04:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459018\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T04:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:25:09","slug":"padres-looking-for-one-more-bat-starter-apiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/459018\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres Looking For One More Bat, Starter Apiece"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Goldschmidt<\/a> is headed back to the Bronx after agreeing to a one-year deal<\/a> with the Yankees. The Diamondbacks had been his only other known suitor for much of the offseason, but it may have ultimately come down to New York and San Diego.<\/p>\n

Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a> loosely linked the Friars to Goldschmidt last night. Dennis Lin of The Athletic<\/a> reported this evening they were indeed among the finalists. The Padres are looking to add one more hitter even after agreeing to a $4MM contract<\/a> with\u00a0Miguel Andujar<\/a> on Wednesday. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller said last weekend the front office was trying to add \u201cmultiple bats, that first base, DH, anything off the bench\u201d (link via Greg Beacham of WKYC<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Andujar projects as the primary designated hitter. He can spell first baseman\u00a0Gavin Sheets<\/a> against left-handed pitching while splitting DH reps with Sung-mun Song<\/a>. The KBO signee has multi-positional flexibility that\u2019d allow them to accommodate another first base\/DH type. The bench was a weakness for the Padres last season and still seems that way. Song and backup catcher Luis Campusano<\/a> project for two spots. That leaves two openings with only four other position players on the 40-man roster: Bryce Johnson<\/a>,\u00a0Will Wagner<\/a>,\u00a0Mason McCoy<\/a> and\u00a0Tirso Ornelas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all fringe 40-man types. Johnson is out of options and hit .342 over 84 plate appearances last year, but that was driven by a .442 average on balls in play that isn\u2019t close to sustainable. Ornelas has been a league average hitter in Triple-A over two full seasons and hasn\u2019t gotten a significant MLB look before his 26th birthday. McCoy has been a below-average offensive player in the minors, while Wagner fell out of the mix in Toronto and hit .225\/.324\/.279 over 55 MLB games last year.<\/p>\n

Rhys Hoskins<\/a>,\u00a0Wilmer Flores<\/a>,\u00a0Justin Turner<\/a> and old friend Ty France<\/a> are unsigned righty-hitting first basemen.\u00a0Marcell Ozuna<\/a>,\u00a0Mitch Garver<\/a> and Andrew McCutchen<\/a>\u00a0are available designated hitters. Speculative trade possibilities include\u00a0Ryan Mountcastle<\/a>,\u00a0Lenyn Sosa<\/a> and\u00a0Ezequiel Duran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

San Diego probably also has a move coming on the pitching side. Preller said last week they wanted to add another starter. It\u2019s likely that\u2019ll be a cheaper back-end type, but they kicked the tires on what would have been a much bigger acquisition. Heyman reports<\/a> that the Padres were among the teams involved on\u00a0Framber Valdez<\/a> before his three-year, $115MM agreement with the Tigers. The Padres were able to wait out the market to land\u00a0Nick Pivetta<\/a> as a February pickup a year ago, but Valdez commanded a much larger contract that was likely never in the budget.<\/p>\n

Most of the remaining free agents of note are starting pitchers. Zac Gallen<\/a>,\u00a0Max Scherzer<\/a>,\u00a0Zack Littell<\/a>,\u00a0Justin Verlander<\/a>,\u00a0Lucas Giolito<\/a> and organizational favorite\u00a0Nick Martinez<\/a> are unsigned.\u00a0Walker Buehler<\/a>,\u00a0Patrick Corbin<\/a>, Miles Mikolas<\/a>,\u00a0Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez<\/a> and\u00a0Jose Quintana<\/a> will be limited to modest one-year salaries if they even command major league deals.<\/p>\n

Signing anyone from that group could push JP Sears<\/a> to long relief or to the Triple-A rotation. They\u2019ll open the year with a strong top three of Pivetta, Michael King<\/a> and\u00a0Joe Musgrove<\/a>. The talent level drops markedly after that.\u00a0Randy V\u00e1squez<\/a> is out of options and seems ticketed for one of the final two spots. Sears,\u00a0Kyle Hart<\/a> and\u00a0Matt Waldron<\/a> are the only other starters on the 40-man roster. They\u2019ve added\u00a0Marco Gonzales<\/a> and\u00a0Triston McKenzie<\/a> on minor league deals with invites to Spring Training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Goldschmidt is headed back to the Bronx after agreeing to a one-year deal with the Yankees. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,24973,462,18213,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-459018","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-framber-valdez","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-paul-goldschmidt","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459018","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=459018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}