The Padres are in agreement on a minor league contract with veteran infielder Erick Aybar, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). The 33-year-old Roc Nation Sports client will compete with Luis Sardinas for the shortstop gig in San Diego.
Aybar opened the 2016 season with the Braves after being included alongside Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis in the Andrelton Simmons trade with the Angels, but he slumped terribly to open the season. A summer surge led to a trade to the Tigers, where he improved with the bat and slashed .250/.341/.350 in a small sample of 91 plate appearances. Overall, however, his .243/.303/.320 batting line left plenty to be desired and forced the longtime Angels infielder to settle for a non-guaranteed deal.
Last season marked the second straight down season for Aybar, but from 2011-14, he was a consistently, if unspectacular option at shortstop in Anaheim. In those four seasons, he batted a combined .279/.317/.399 with solid glovework, above-average baserunning and modest pop. The Padres will be hoping for a return to that form or for Sardinas to continue the production he demonstrated following a trade last August.
In a tiny sample of 120 plate appearances with the Padres, Sardinas hit .287/.353/.417 with a pair of homers, six doubles and a triple. He’s long been praised as an above-average defender at shortstop, too, so if he can continue to provide some semblance of offense, he could emerge as a long-term option for GM A.J. Preller and manager Andy Green. The addition of Aybar, though, suggests that the Padres won’t simply hand over the shortstop reins to the 23-year-old Sardinas. The Friars could continue to look for additional options at shortstop, though the free-agent market is lacking in that regard outside of former Padre Alexei Ramirez, whose time in San Diego did not go well. Spring Training, though, could lead to the emergence of alternatives on the waiver wire as well as out-of-options players who look unlikely to break camp with their clubs.
It’s about time he signs there. It’s a good match. Considering that they don’t have an established shortstop
Oh good. I guess Clint Barmes and Alexei Ramirez must not have been answering their phones. How long has it been since the Padres had even a league-average shortstop? Khalil Greene, maybe?
supposed to be treA Turner.
Everth Cabrera only played 95 games in 2013 but did accumulate 3.0 WAR playing exclusively SS for the Friars. Other than that, yeah, it’s Khalil Greene in 2007 and 2004, then Damian Jackson’s 2000 season.
Gosh, how quickly I forgot Everth. He was good that one half-season.
Ah yes, I remember Everth. It’s too bad he got busted for PEDs a while back.
Not only that, but Everth was an All-Star in 2013. I was surprised too when I looked it up.
Clint retired a couple years ago
Well so much for the Padres only looking for a shortstop via trade and not free agency
Question is now, who do they DFA for the 40 man spot?
Hessler or Quackenbush hopefully.
It’s a minor league deal so they don’t have to worry about this for a while, right? I doubt Aybar makes the team; he hasn’t been good since 2011.
They don’t have to make room for him until the end of Spring Training.
Just call me Nostradamus. I called this last week and I keep my Trout autograph baseball…..Gee how do I know the things I know!
A lot of people called this, the Padres & Aybar have been a match all offseason. The next contestant on former American League All-Star Shorstops trying to revitalize you career in San Diego, here is the leaderboard:
Miguel Tejada- Fail
Jason Bartlett- Fail
Alexi Ramirez- Fail
Erick, you’re next!!!
A lot of people called it? Hmm going back looking at posts I didn’t see anyone calling it….a lot of it makes sense or why not but nobody saying it would happen
Congrats on connecting the dots between a lousy player and the only team bad enough to need him.
Honestly I don’t see the point in him taking any playing time from Sardinas or keeping the Rule 5 pick Cordoba off the roster. The pads are looking to win about 70 games this year might as well let the younger guys get some play time. If Cordoba can play average D off the bench, pinch run, and slash even something bad like .220/.275/.300 (Huge if) I’d take it over Aybar since Aybar will likely put up similar crap numbers and at least Cordoba can go back to the minors to build on that in 2018.
In spring training if Cordoba looks like he’s going to hit .150 and this will ruin his development, then thats the only way I see Aybar making this team. Even then it might be better to see what Rondon and Guerra can do since they still have some value as prospects.
With that rotation I’d be very surprised if they won 70.
70 wins? Man, you are an optimist. This team is going to lose 100 games pretty easily.
I meant 70 wins is probably their goal and they’d call that a success. Although baseball prospectus’ PECOTA did project them to win 70, with those pitchers it’s probably a little high.
What’s even sadder is that the Opening Day starter might not even be on the roster yet. Rumors on here & other places have mentioned Doug Fister & Travis Wood as possible late additions of the Padres can get them for close to what Cahill, Richard & Chacin signed for & if that’s the case you would have to think Fister or Wood could be called on to pitch in the opener ahead of the three mentioned & Luis Perdomo.
Yikes.
It’s all about shooting for that first pick in the 2018 Draft!
I echo the same sentiments but with the rotation. I know you need veterans to come in & eat innings while providing leadership but with how bad this team projects to be why not just fill the rotation with the kids and still all the vets in the bullpen. I like the no-risk pick up’s in the former top prospects Zach Lee & Tyrell Jenkins and think both should be given more of an opportunity to win a spot in the rotation over Cahill, Richard & Chacin because at this point those 3 are known commodities. Cosart gets an edge for me as well because he is only 26 and just 3 years ago he was an all-start with Houston so he can definitely pitch at this level.
My ideal rotation would be:
Cosart
Perdomo
Vargas
Jenkins
Lee
With an 8 man bullpen of the Rule V kid and the 7 veterans under contract.
Diaz -long relief/mop-up duties
Richard – middle relief
Cahill – middle relief
Chacin – middle relief
Hand – LH specialist
Buchter – 7th inning guy
Maurer – 8th inning guy
Capps -Closer
W/ Bethancourt serving as a hybrid 25th man on the bench. Back up Catcher, LF/RF, DH in American League parks & Emergency 9th reliever out of the bullpen.
Man, I hope they let Bethancourt do what Amarista did last year and let him pitch during those huge lopsided games where they lose by double digits.
Ugh. I’m so over 13-man pitching staffs. And Cosart should be a reliever.
Yea burn out your young pitchers while waiting to compete that’s smart
Jenkins Lee and Cosart arent young pitchers that are in the padres plans long term…….they are former highly talented pitchers the padres are looking to catch lightning in a bottle with. The only person on that list that is in the padres plans long term is perdomo, but that could change if he struggles this year or something. Nobody on that list of potential starters is going to be with the padres by the time they are ready to compete in 2020 unless they prove capable of being a useful mlb pitcher which even then they could be traded before 2020
Ideally id like to see chacin richard cahill lee jenkins in the rotation. And trade off chacin richard and cahill if they are proving to be useful pieces.
Young pitchers like zach lee and Jared Cosart? Pretty much none of the pitchers you listed is going to be on the next good Padres team.
Your middle relievers are going to be 3/5ths of the rotation.
Have to agree zero depth,pitching staff horrendous yes 100 loss team easily
They have young depth & position log-jams at second, third, center & left. Just no pitching obviously. You figure Schimpf, Spangenberg & Asuaje battling for 2nd, with the two runner up’s then fighting for a UTL spot with the third being the starter in AAA. All three of those options could also & have also played 3rd extensively in the minors, so that’s depth behind Solarte so be it, Christian Villanueva was also signed to a minor league deal who will be the AAA third baseman & most likely to see some playing time with the Pads sometime this season as well. Then finally the Center field starter looks to then determine who will start in left. Gotta figure if Jankowski wins CF then Dickerson starts in LF & if Margot wins CF then Jankowski gets LF, there you have Blash as a viable backup option with Getty’s & Torres close to being Major League ready as well who can also play LF or CF.
Dickerson starts in LF regardless of who wins the starting CF job and Michael Gettys is nowhere near Major League ready
Jankowski should be the fourth OF with Margot, Dickerson and Renfroe as the starters. Spangenberg has never really been any good and was injured all of last season. He probably doesn’t profile as a utility guy because he can’t play shortstop.
I’m assuming Schimpf ends up at second and Spangenberg ends up in AAA. I can’t imagine Córdoba sticks in the majors, so Sardinas probably is the utility guy.
I watched Dickerson a lot in college in person and he doesn’t strike me as a guy who profiles as a left fielder in the majors. But maybe he has an inner Seth Smith in him. Blash isn’t any good. My lord, this is going to be an awful team.
… always liked watching Aybar play the game. Great bunter.
Padres need to give jankowski as much playing time as necessary. If he’s not in their plans long term they need to give him playing time in hopes he has a break out season to pair with his stellar defense and base running and coup more assets.
But I mean if the padres are hurting at ss, why not try jankowski at ss. Does he not have the arm to be a ss? If hes going to AAA try him out at ss.
He’s never played any infield position ever. The major league level seems like a really bad place to try this out.
Hence the “if hes going to AAA try him out at SS” giving him playing time didn’t mean give him playing time at SS in the big leagues this year. Playing time meant in center or left to let him build value.
Bring back Chris gomez !!!!