The Padres have agreed to a minor league deal with veteran utilityman Skip Schumaker, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports on Twitter. Contract details have yet to be reported.
Schumaker hit the market when his option was declined by the Reds earlier in the offseason. That did not come as much of a surprise after two tough years in Cincinnati, in which he accumulated a .238/.297/.322 slash in 539 plate appearances.
There were more prosperous years before that, of course, as Schumaker enjoyed a nice run with the Cardinals and brief stop with the Dodgers before joining the Reds. In just under 3,000 MLB turns at bat over the 2007-13 campaigns, he carried a .288/.346/.375 batting line.
It isn’t hard to see the match-up here, as the Padres still have a fair bit of flexibility in settling upon a bench mix. Schumaker will presumably compete for a utility role in camp. He’s spent most of his career splitting time between second base and the outfield.
As he qualified as an Article XX(B) free agent, Schumaker will automatically receive the protections afforded such players — though he could also have negotiated other terms. Five days before the season begins, San Diego will have to decide whether to add him to its major league roster, pay him a $100K retention bonus, or cut him loose. If the bonus is paid, Schumaker would also pick up a June 1 opt-out date.
PRINT THE WORLD SERIES TICKETS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hahahaha!!! What are we doing?? This is a hilarious signing. Print me a World Series ticket while you are at it Ryan lol
Holy crap, guys, lay off the overreaction theater! It’s a minor league deal. Between Schumaker and Adam Rosales, they have veteran utility men who can play all around the diamond. These guys are on staff just in case the injury bug hits again and we need a fill-in. It’s not like Schumaker will be our starting CF.
It’s clear that MLBTR isn’t moderating the comments anymore. Sad to see.
Straight downhill…
Haha yeah I know, it’s just been a pretty uninteresting offseason so far for the Padres so my comment was in light of that.
I still think we have a couple holes left, wish they would sign a veteran starter that can compete for the 5 spot. Been hoping rumors that we were interested in Lincecum a couple weeks back would come to fruition. I also think signing Freese would be nice, move Solarte to second and go into the season with that. Take Amarista and either Campos or Vincent off the 40 man roster, most likely trade them for more low minor league depth, seems to be Preller’s plan this offseason
Why would they do that? No negative or offensive language was used. I don’t get it, are fans not supposed to be angry or disgruntled when their teams only makes mediocre moves like this?
If we sign Freese and move Solarte to 2nd what becomes of Spangenberg?
Spangenberg becomes like a Jarod Dyson type player, late game replacement with a speed element to change the course of the lower scoring tight games. He could start at second on days where a tough righty is starting and Solarte could slide to third to give Freese the day off.
I like Spangenberg don’t get me wrong, but he is very streaky and yet to prove his durability & dependability when given the opportunity. It could create a log jam on the bench. As for now it looks like the 5 man bench would be Bethancourt, Wallace, Schumaker/Rosales, Pirela/Amarista, Blash/Jay.
Spangenberg isn’t a late game replacement. His future lies in one of two places: playing as the Padres’ everyday 2nd baseman or traded.
And he’s not streaky either.
The Union Tribune came out and said this about him last month:
“Even if Spangenberg is better than Gyorko, which is still up in the air at this point, it remains to be seen whether he can be an everyday player for the Padres next season. Spangenberg has yet to play a full season in his career, setting a career high in games (108) and at bats (345) last season. If Spangenberg can maintain his performance from last season, which the steamer projections are not confident will happen, he could easily be a 3 WAR player if given full playing time. This would make him a solid, above average regular Major Leaguer.”
It is odd for them to come out and say that they aren’t confident that he can repeat last years performance. Which is their assessment, I just know what I’ve seen and for the most part he looks overmatched a lot at the plate and he plays like a spaz. He gets a lot of squibber/ off the end of bat type hits and if it wasn’t for his above average speed a lot of those would be routine outs.
I think that by the All-Star break Asuaje will be up and starting at second base anyways regardless if Spangenberg is on the roster or not.
Have a sense of humor, guys.Jill
Ok. Then Spangenberg must be traded or released immediately. I don’t want a team full of utility players. We had that in 2014 and a team like that isn’t winning ANYTHING.
Agreed.
Spangenberg will likely start out the season as the starting 2B and they’ll go from there.
Regardless of what the front office is trying to sell, there shouldn’t be a lot of high expectations for the team this year. Saying that, maybe there’ll be some surprises, but for now it’ll be good to see guys like Spangenberg getting more chances at playing time to develop.
This is nothing more than another minor league depth signing. Sure, it’s not very exciting, but no need to overreact.
My only hope is that the padres do well in the draft and international signings. Does anyone know of some good sites for looking at draft prospects?