TODAY: Cincinnati will pick up infielder Josh VanMeter from the Padres in the trade for Torrens, per club announcements. The 21-year-old struggled after a promotion to Double-A last year, but earned that bump up with a strong .267/.355/.443 batting line over 401 High-A plate appearances. Notably, he ended up hitting 14 total home runs in 2016 — a rather significant tally for a player who had hit just three total long balls as a professional coming into the year.
YESTERDAY: The Padres will acquire the top two Rule 5 Draft picks, righty Miguel Diaz (in a trade with the Twins) and catcher Luis Torrens (in a trade with the Reds), MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo writes (Twitter links). (Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper tweeted that the Reds would trade Torrens to San Diego.) The Padres already had the third Rule 5 pick and used it to select infielder Allen Cordoba, so it appears they’ve ended up with the first three Rule 5 picks.
The Reds will receive a player to be named and cash from the Padres. The Twins will receive a player to be named or cash, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune tweets, and they’ll also get Rule 5 pick Justin Haley, who the Padres had previously acquired from the Angels. Diaz and Torrens were previously with the Brewers and Yankees, respectively. Haley had been with the Red Sox.
That’s all incredibly confusing, so here’s a different way of representing where each player went this morning:
Diaz: Brewers –> Twins –> Padres
Torrens: Yankees –> Reds –> Padres
Haley: Red Sox –> Angels –> Padres –> Twins
The 22-year-old Diaz ranked 21st on MLB.com’s list of the Brewers’ top prospects. He throws in the mid-90s from a three-quarters arm slot, and he has the makings of a good slider, according to MLB.com. He’s a bit small, at 6’1″ and 175 pounds, and he’s had elbow trouble in the past. He fared well for Class A Wisconsin in 2016, however, with a 3.71 ERA, 8.7 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 94 2/3 innings.
Torrens, 20, ranked as the Yankees’ 17th-best prospect. The Yankees signed him out of Venezuela for $1.3MM in 2012. He hasn’t hit much, batting .250/.350/.337 in the lower levels in 2016, and his experience is limited, due to shoulder troubles that cost him much of 2014 and all of 2015, but MLB.com praises his work behind the plate. He seems hard-pressed to stick in the Majors all season, but perhaps it’s not out of the question he could make the Padres out of Spring Training as Austin Hedges’ backup.
Go Padres! Even if one of these guys pans out, I’m excited. Love what they are doing!
Three guys who probably won’t get much playing time as none of them are anywhere close to MLB ready, so they either need to burn roster spots on them or let them struggle terribly and risk them losing confidence. I guess SD can afford to give it a shot though.
This is a huge waste of 3 roster spots, the oldest one they picked just turned 22. Their either going to waste that spot, play more than expected and lose confidence, or, in the Padres hopes, play more than expected and excel, but I kind of doubt it.
Well mostly not all will be there by opening day. Last year we selected four and two made opening day and we gave both guys a shot and look at Luis Perdomo, last few months of the season, he surprised everyone. But what’s the harm of selecting three guys and seeing what happens??
Perdomo had more minor league experience than any of these guys even if it was low level. Torrens could stick as a defensive backup even though he hasn’t played over A ball. Big jump, but possible especially if they carry 3 catchers. Cordoba hasn’t played over rookie ball yet and Diaz is only a year removed from a fractured elbow and only has 1 year over rookie ball under his belt. Hard to see either of them making Opening Day roster but all it really cost them was some cash.
For a team like the padres whos major prospects are still 2 years away 3 roster spots for these guys isnt farfetched.
Also the catcher and infielder will get pitch hitting roles against whoever happens to be out there so that they get the advantage. The pitcher can be sent in for a batter or two where they get the advantage in a lineup towards the bottom.
Its not hard to create opportunities for success for these players.
They may not wind up carrying all 3- my moneys on diaz.
All of these guys have 5 years of experience if they are available in the Rule V draft. Perdomo had pitched one level higher than Diaz has had with 5 starts in high A Florida league after starting in the Midwest league while Diaz spent the whole year in low A Midwest league, so that is a bit higher competition.
As long as the Padres aren’t just a Triple A team, like during the Werner ownership years, when all they did was ready players, and then trade them when they are big-league-ready, I’ll accept their dealings. Oh, how I yearn for the John Moores ownership.
They’re not a AAA team, these guys are barely ready for AA! 🙂
So, do the Twins and Reds just get cash (in addition to the $100,000 they each spent), or player(s)?
Can the Padres keep 3 guys who belong in single A on their roster? New competitive advantage in tanking, don’t even try to keep MLB-ready players?
Baseball teams never tank. They might not all go championship or bust every year but never have they ever tanked. Rebuilding is not tanking.
Tanking in baseball is guaranteed to wreck your club.
What did the Padres give up. Hopefully only cash
Torrens is an interesting prospect. Needs to improve his hitting. Unfortunately his shoulder issues are a red flag.
In the game I saw him play in for Charleston this year, he threw out a guy from his knees and the gun registered it as a 92 mph pitch. I think his shoulder is fine.
They were smart to grab the catcher since they for some reason decided to change Bethincort into a utility player who can pitch, so I bet this guy serves as their backup this season.
Diaz has a chance to stick. Preller may have found his 2017 version of Perdomo.
Doubt it. His slider is still a work in progress and his change is not anywhere close yet. Heat and the occasional breaking ball may fly in rookie and A ball but he’s nowhere near ready for the show. Perdomo had much better feel for his stuff and much better mechanics than Diaz does.
While I doubt Diaz sticks, just like I doubt any Rule V player sticks, he has a better FB than Perdomo did when we traded with Colorado to get him after they drafted him in the Rule V draft and both have a good slider that was a work in progress at the point we got them. Perdomo struggled early and seemed to figure out his slider turning it into more of a slurve late in the year. Diaz is a very, very similar pitcher to Perdomo, so Preller is hoping to catch lightning in a bottle for the 2nd straight year.
Rebuilding teams are allowed to be patient with those kinda guys and I imagine that that is what will happen
Josh Hamilton, johan Santana, Dan uggla, hector Rondon.. no rule v’s ever stick? Those are just off the top of my head..
The Padres are executing a ‘get young, acquire talent’ phase.. let them do it. I agree ‘3’ at one time is a lot, but you need to give the FO time to execute a plan (Theo had 3 last place finished in a row .. avg 93(?) losses/year… and his turnaround was ‘fast’)..
(I am not even a Padres fan. I just can see what they are trying to do).
Wow! That has to be a first, the top 3 picks. I can see all 3 players on their roster this season. Bullpen is thin, & no bench after letting Wallace/Little Ninja go.
Jeez, people always try to find a way to criticize the Pads.
Let them be, their experiment with Perdomo work last season. If there’s one thing AJ is good at, it’s eyeing talent. He proved this with multiple arms last season.
It’s not necessarily anything against the Padres, it’s just pretty unrealistic for fans to expect all three of these guys to make the Opening Day roster, not to mention stick long enough to keep. If they hit on one (And Torrens would be my bet) it’s great. And there is no real risk so of course it’s a good move. However if I were a Pads fan and they do have all these guys on the Opening Day roster I’d not be thrilled about having 3 guys who belong in A or AA on the MLB team. I’d always want them to put out a decent product.
Get that “decent product” out of here! If they aren’t making the playoffs all wins do is hurt their draft position.
MLB draft picks are far from a sure thing. You don’t tank for draft position like you would in the NBA.
While that may be true the #1 pick is closer to being a sure thing than the #4 pick. Are a few extra wins and still missing the playoffs really worth drafting a few spots lower and the associated decrease in slot values?
Except in baseball a teams pool allotment is based off draft position. Each draft slot has less money than the previous slot. Padres getting the #1 overall pick means they get the highest money allotment than any other team. More money means more ability to sign high upside talent to forgo college. Baseball is the only sport where you can shift money around for draft picks. NF: and NBA don’t do that. As such higher draft position means you can draft a lesser player to get higher players elsewhere.
Torrens can’t hit Low A pitching, so he is highly unlikely to stick. I think Preller is hoping to make a trade to keep him and Cordoba long term like he did with Blash last year. Typically it’s Rule V pitchers that stick, about 75% of the players taken, and Diaz has the stuff. More worried about his elbow holding out than his stuff as he is very similar to Perdomo with a slightly better FB than Perdomo had at the point we got him.
I see that the Padres couldn’t decide which guy they’d take at #3 so they just decided to trade for the two guys who weren’t there.
It’s a 100% rebuilding year for the Padres so they can afford to take their chance on 3 Rule V picks. Low risk anyways, but if even 1 pans out they will be good pickups.
If we hold on to Sanchez catcher isnt going to stay. With our elite training staff the pitcher should have elbow problems by May so we should be able to keep him on the DL all year.
Has to be on an active roster for 90 days, can’t just stash someone on the DL.
If a player we take in the Rule V draft has an injury that keeps him on the DL most of the season we can still keep him, he just has to be on the active roster for 90 days total between the 2017 and 2018 seasons. So if we decide to keep Diaz and he blows out his elbow on May 5th, we just have to keep him on the active roster in April and May next season to hold on to him.
Fantastic! We got another kid with elbow problems. He should be having TJ surgery by March or April. At least if he gets injured we get to keep him for when he does come back. We sent away the one guy with a chance to help in the majors this year to get him. My wife said that of course alot of our guys have TJ surgery, look how close we are to Tijuana. TJ. Get it. Ok, got to laugh or I’m gonna cry this year.
Saw Torrens play for low A Charleston this year. Great eye at the plate, he had 2 walks in the game I saw, but he flailed at the few breaking balls he saw and had a bloop single to right field on a fastball up and away. He did throw out 2 runners and even though the first 2 pitchers were struggling, they ony gave up 1 run though 5 innings, so in addition to a good arm he calls a good game and that is something. If we are looking at the all defensive catcher squad, then he is a good addition. With Hedges catching 100+ games and Bethancourt to catch another 40, maybe this kid can catch 15-20 and pinch hit, but I highly doubt he makes it through the season. He wont hit his weight in the majors after struggling to hit in the Sally league.
Don’t know much about Cordoba, but he hasn’t played above rookie league ball, so that is a tremendous jump. Guys are usually 4-5 years away from the majors at that point. Maybe Preller is hoping to make a trade with the Cardinals to keep him in the minors until he is ready like he did with Blash last year.
The one player of all of them that had the best chance of sticking in the majors was Haley and we traded him to the Twins to get Diaz.
The Padres should move one of their minor league teams to Tijuana and call them the Tijuana TJs.
Torrens is a talented kid with injury issues. What the kid needs more than anything else is to play, get needed A/B’s, continue to develop, and — I can’t stress this too strongly — remain healthy. If the Pod’s stick him on their bench as a 3rd string catcher for the entire year, whatever short term gain the kid gets by making the show won’t make up for the development time he’s missing out on playing the full year in the bushes.
Feel bad for this kid as he has the ability to become a top flight big-league backstop if afforded the time and patience required. I hope good sense prevails and someone in the Pod’s org. does the right thing and sends him back home to the Bombers to further his development. Letting him rot on the bench all year while pushing his development back another full year only undermines the kid’s future. Torrens ain’t nearly ready for the big leagues yet so don’t see how prematurely bringing him up to the show benefits the Pod’s either. IMO, it’s a lose/lose for all concerned.
Interesting picks, even though it’s the Rule 5 draft. In a rebuilding season, like this upcoming one, they might as well take a shot on guys like these.
Rockstar
VanMeter isn’t a bad prospect and there’s a chance the Padres don’t hang onto Torrens not sure if that’s a good deal.
@Charlie Wilmoth: Why was Luis Torrens eligible to be drafted? From mlb.com:
“Can any Minor League player be drafted?
No. Players who were signed when they were 19 or older and have played in professional baseball for four years are eligible, as are players who were signed at 18 and have played for five years.
All players on a Major League Baseball team’s 40-man roster, regardless of other eligibility factors, are “protected” and ineligible for the Rule 5 Draft.”
Torrens was signed in 2012 when he was 16 or 17, so he needs five years of professional experience to be eligible. According to baseball reference, Torrens played from 2013-16 which is only 4 years if you include the year he was on the minor league DL.
This is a big deal because the Padres actually gave up a legitimate prospect for him which shows they are going to stash him on their pathetic roster during 2017 and then send him back to the Minors at the end of the year. They can then call him back up in 2019 when he’s still only 23 and ready for the majors.