PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 The working theory was that Freddy Fermin would catch the vast majority of Padres games in 2026.<\/p>\n
New manager Craig Stammen on Friday tempered that expectation and also threw another changeup into the catcher mix, which the Padres project at the start of the season will consist of Fermin and Luis Campusano.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think to not burn Freddy out, Campy, if he\u2019s the No.2, he\u2019s got to catch a lot,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cTo get those guys off to a good start in the season, not maybe exactly equal playing time \u2014 we\u2019ll see how it shakes out \u2014 but (Campusano will likely) play a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems likely Fermin will catch more games as the No.1 catcher, and it remains a possibility he could end up pushing 100 starts behind the plate. But Stammen is cognizant of the reality that the 30-year-old Fermin has never been a No.1 catcher.<\/p>\n
Fermin started a career-high 89 games last season, including 39 of the Padres\u2019 final 52 games after he was acquired from the Royals at the trade deadline. In his two previous seasons as Salvador Perez\u2019s backup with the Royals, Fermin started 72 and 54 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a set (number of games) on it,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see kind of how it goes. Performance tells you a lot about who gets to play and who doesn\u2019t get to play. But I think (he will get more rest) at the beginning, just to, like, keep Freddy fresh. He\u2019ll be asked to take more of a load this year. Hopefully Campy is right there with him and we feel good about either one of those guys catching that we can win a baseball game.\u201d<\/p>\n
No Padres catcher has started more than 95 games since 2017, when Austin Hedges started 102. In the first 110 games of last season, Mart\u00edn Maldonado caught 56 games to Elias D\u00edaz\u2019s 54.<\/p>\n
Those two also almost exclusively caught specific pitchers. D\u00edaz, for instance, caught all 31 of Nick Pivetta\u2019s starts. Maldonado caught Dylan Cease\u2019s first 19 starts and Randy V\u00e1squez\u2019s first 20 starts.<\/p>\n
It seems those types of pairings are not in Stammen\u2019s plans for 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every catcher needs to catch every pitcher, and every pitcher needs to throw to every catcher,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, will there be, \u2018Hey, these guys are just way better together?\u2019 That could definitely happen. But you never know. You can\u2019t pigeonhole them, because, say, one guy gets hurt and then all of a sudden the backup has to catch those guys too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t love falling into that pattern. Maybe that\u2019s because I was a reliever and I had to throw to everybody and just make it work. But I also feel like the team dynamic gets better when they\u2019re all working with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darvish update<\/p>\n
Yu Darvish arrived in Japan on this week in advance of Team Japan\u2019s preparations for the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n
Darvish, who had elbow surgery in October, is not playing in the WBC and will not pitch this season. Instead, he will serve as a mentor for Samurai Japan, as the team is commonly referred.<\/p>\n
That is a role he might fill for the Padres in 2026, as well, though the nature of his being with the team has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as he is willing to be around the team, we\u2019ll have him here,\u201d Stammen said. \u201cI know he\u2019s had a huge impact on a lot of our pitchers that are currently on the staff. \u2026 Whenever Yu is here, he\u2019s got so much knowledge; we can\u2019t wait to have him back and be around the guys.<\/p>\n
\u201cYu\u2019s schedule is up to him. \u2026 He said he\u2019s going to be here at some point. We\u2019re kind of letting him have his space a little bit. Obviously, he\u2019s making decisions on what he wants to do with the future, but we\u2019re supporting him in every way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darvish has remained consistent in letting the Padres know he plans to terminate his contract, which has three years and $46 million remaining. While he has said he believes he will want to pitch again one day, he is uncertain whether that will happen.<\/p>\n
Getting going<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 first full-squad workout is Sunday, but every position player expected to have a shot at being on the opening-day roster is in camp.<\/p>\n
While regulars Jake Cronenworth, Jackson Merrill and Gavin Sheets have been working out at the Peoria Sports Complex for more than a week, Thursday was the first day Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. were in the clubhouse.<\/p>\n
Said Stammen: \u201cGetting those big boys in town makes it feel real, like we\u2019re getting the band back together again and things are moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Machado, Tatis, Xander Bogaerts and other players participating in the WBC will depart camp on March 1 and return when their team is eliminated (or wins the tournament). That is a range of March 12 to March 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 The working theory was that Freddy Fermin would catch the vast majority of Padres games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-177749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}