Aug. 28: The Padres have formally announced Urias’ promotion to the Majors. Asuaje has been optioned to Triple-A to open a spot on the active roster. San Diego has also placed lefty Clayton Richard on the 10-day disabled due to inflammation in his left knee and activated right-hander Colten Brewer from the disabled list in his place.
Aug. 27: The Padres are set to promote highly regarded infield prospect Luis Urias, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He is expected to debut tomorrow.
Urias, 21, is widely considered one of the crown jewels of a Padres system that, the organization has long hoped, will usher in a golden age of baseball in San Diego. There’s a clear consensus that he’s one of the most promising young players in baseball, with outlets such as Fangraphs (#22), MLB.com (#22), and Baseball America (#29) rating him among the game’s thirty or so best prospects.
There’s a lot to like about Urias’s potential as a hitter. He features a rare combination of plate discipline and contact ability that has allowed him to hit over .300 while carrying nearly a .400 OBP over his five minor-league seasons. Power isn’t a strong suit, though Urias has increased his home-run output over recent campaigns and this year has put the ball over the fence eight times in 533 plate appearances.
It seems fair to note, too, that Urias has the kind of underlying skills that could allow him to come into more power at the game’s highest level. In recent years, we’ve seen several players — Jose Altuve, Francisco Lindor, and Jose Ramirez among them, to take a few famous examples — develop surprising pop after reaching the bigs. Whether or not Urias is destined for that kind of outcome obviously isn’t yet known, but it seems notable that MLB.com credits him with more raw power than his outcomes indicate while BA cites Urias’s impressive exit velocity.
To be sure, Urias would likely generate even greater excitement if he was considered a future shortstop. Still, he is also valued for his defensive potential. Most evaluators indicate that he’ll likely be a high-quality defender at second base. It doesn’t hurt that he’s considered at least capable of playing shortstop as well; indeed, Acee says that Urias will get some time there upon his arrival.
For the Padres, this promotion offers an opportunity to get a look at a player who’s expected to hold down an important role for years to come. Urias will not accrue enough service time this year to put himself on track for future Super Two status. If he stays in the majors from here on out, he won’t be eligible for free agency until at least 2025. Picking up thirty-plus days of MLB action will make it a bit harder for the Friars to hold Urias down to open the 2019 season in hopes of extending the team’s control rights.
If he shows well upon his arrival, Urias will likely enter camp next year as the odds-on favorite to open the season as the regular second baseman. San Diego has not received much production from its options at the position thus far in 2018, after all, so the organization is no doubt anxious to plug in a permanent piece. Jose Pirela, Carlos Asuaje, and Cory Spangenberg have all failed to take advantage of opportunities at second this season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Not a big fan of this. Wait until El Paso’s season is over. They need him to win the championship. Let him win something now and carry it over to his time in SD. Bring him up in a couple weeks.
In the minors he’s making $1,000/month. In the majors he’ll make $42,000/month. While winning a championship in the minors can only help a player’s development, there’s no way that can be deemed more beneficial than the extra financial security the player will experience IN ADDITION to being exposed to the major league coaching staff
Its a matter of a couple of weeks…let him play in EP
It’s gotta be more than that. League minimum is north of 500k and the season is 6 months long.
Not 100% positive, but I’m pretty sure they get paid throughout the year, not just when they’re playing.
They only get paid during the season
You are correct.
Actually no it is not correct. They have a choice of how they get paid negotiated in their contract. It’s nothing like a company payroll. It’s like a company paying their vendors.
the Padres need something to keep the fans coming, last play ball isn’t going to do it..
Yeah,but they are basically giving their top affiliate and their fans the finger.
Except their fans are likely Padres fans, so I don’t think they’ll be too upset.
Well, you’re clearly an El Paso baseball fan! I get the frustration. I did PR in minor league ball for a while, and it was rough watching guys get called up right before the playoffs.
But here’s the thing – most big league teams don’t care about winning at the minor league level. Sure, some consider winning a part of the developmental process. But most don’t.
And before you say that winning is absolutely a part of development, understand that the Phillies, with Amaro, really cared about it late last decade and into this one. They’d sign former big league guys late in the year, assign them to Double A or Triple A ahead of the playoffs, and try to win a title. That philosophy didn’t exactly mean much in the long run as most of their best prospects eventually busted out in the big leagues. I’m not saying there’s a correlation. But rather, winning in the minors doesn’t necessarily help a player succeed in the bigs.
Somehow, I don’t think winning a Minor League title (which very, very few people care about), will be more beneficial for his career than getting reps in the Majors.
I can’t wait!
I’m so excited!
And would be even more happy if Pirela gets DFA
The April’s Mlb hit leader? Oh my
Yesss!! bye Pirela!
Long overdue. I really liked this guy and his defense in the Arizona Fall League.
I’m glad he’s finally getting his chance. Andy Green better play him everyday now.
Can’t wait to see both Tatis and Urias playing together in the majors, they’ll definitely be fun to watch
About ******* time
Renfroe,Hedges and Margot have all disappointed. Why do people think Urias or Tatis will be any different?
Is this a joke, or a nominee for the worst comment of the year award? Does that mean Astros and Cubs prospects will be superstars because Bryant, Rizzo, Correa, Altuve, etc. turned out to be good???
How gets put on Waivers or DFA Headley or so on?
Headley was released months ago.
Renfroe is like the best player on the team now
Which isn’t saying much.
lol..
.805 OPS/ 117 OPS+
Definitely saying something
Hedges renfroe and margot are players preller inherited or acquired. He didnt draft or develop them.
So you’re thinking that if they were drafted by Preller, somehow they’d be guaranteed success? And as he’s the GM, their development (or lack thereof) was under his watch. I’m not sold on AJ the Savior; a lot of the last round of top prospects are thriving after he traded them away for other teams’ malcontents (Uptons, Kemp), china dolls (Myers) or reclamation projects (Middlebrooks) – look at Mallex Smith, Max Fried, Zach Eflin, Jake Bauers, Yasmani Grandel, and Trea Turner). They’d look pretty good in Padres uniforms now
Somebody that is objective and not and very observant.
You left out Kluber. LOL
He traded Ryan Hanigan for Will Middlebrooks. Did that trade really have any effect one way or the other?
Jake Bauers? Not looking so good for Tampa this year. And 1B are easy to come by.
Fried- at best a #3 at worst a #4 walks too many guys.
Eflin- again a #3 at best #4 at worst.
Not seeing how a 1B with no pop and a couple back end starters matter.
Smith looks good. But rather see him do it consistently otherwise hes produced as much as jankowski and margot have in their careers.
Turner hurts- but tatis jr makes up for the ss of the future.
“Obejective”
But leaves out
Brad Hand for Francisco Mejia
Drew Pomeranz for Anderson Espinoza
Fernando Rodney for Chris Paddack
Andrew Cashner for Josh Naylor
James Shields for Fernando Tatis Jr
Drafting Maton, Joey Lucchesi,
Signing Urias- Morejon- Baez-
“Objective” lol.
Missed the point entirely.
Blaming Preller for Renfroe Margot and Hedges not living up to the hype when he didnt draft them or develop them doesnt make any sense.
Who knows if preller drafts hedges and renfroe. He could have chosen others that year. Who knows.
Point is. He inherited them. Blaming him for what he inherited that others developed makes 0 sense.
Its pretty dumb logic.
Now if urias gore quantril etc bust you have an argument.
Bauers – Myers trade. He’s not looking so great either. And Bauers is far from being the only player given up in that trade.
Fried – Justin Upton trade. How is he doing for the Padres these days?
Eflin – Kemp trade. Parting with anything for Kemp was freakishly stupid. let alone a #3-4 starter.
Smith – see Fried
Turner – It would be better to have him at short and Tatis at 3rd
Oh and Preller didn’t draft Urias, he predates Preller by a little less than a year.
He didnt sign urias
He didn’t sign urias. That was before his time
True, but my point is that they were touted to be can’t miss guys. They have been anything but that.
No they weren’t
Yeah, no they weren’t. Turner was the closest one to being a sure thing but there were still question marks surrounding him.
They don’t get developed in the minors?
Preller signed in 2015. Hedges and Renfroe were both well advanced in the system before Preller took over. Margot was developed by the red sox. Saying how come they arent good preller is like saying how come your newcar sucks after you bought it from someone else that drove it 100k miles already.
Tatis Jr came from the white Sox…. so I guess that doesn’t count as a positive for Preller also? Since Margot doesn’t count as a negative since he was from the Red Sox? Double standard?
Tatis wasnt developed by the white sox……
Sure its a double standard when you change the criteria…..
Please dont tell me you were dumb enough to compare margot (developed by the red sox for 4 1/2 years) to tatis jr (0 years in the white sox system).
Tatis Jr hasn’t played a game yet
Pretty sure Preller traded for Margot, Kimbril deal i think off the top of my head
But he did draft lauer Kennedy and Joey.
Joey leaves it all out there. Lauer has a really good stretch and gets bombed, and Kennedy was never projected to make it
Not sure what is so disappointing about a guy with an .805 OPS and an elite defensive catcher batting in the .240’s. And what they did has no bearing on what Urias will do.
What did he hit last year?
What did Mike Trout hit in 2011?
You’re comparing Mike Trout to Austin hedges? That might be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.
Hedges is a solid player. He doesn’t have to be Mike Trout.
He’s also way sexier than Mike Trout.
No, I’m pointing out the obvious truth that not all players succeed as hitters in their first (or even second or third) year in the Majors.
Because Renfroe and Hedges were never top 20 prospects in the game ever. Not at one point. I think the highest Renfroe was ever ranked was 44 or 45 on the top 100, Hedges was always on the lower end of the list because of his bat.
Tatis is ranked 2 in the game. Urias is top 20. That’s the difference. Scouts have said these two players are elite. No comparison between the groups you mention. Sorry.
Yea well I can name 20+ top 10 prospects that haven’t worked out past 6-7 years….
So that means they’re all going to end up busts?
You can also name 20 non top 10 prospects that have worked out the past 6-7 years…
that’s how sports works.
It’s not predictable. If it were why would we all watch? If every guy on the top 100 worked out we would have no real excitement for the unknown.
The hit rate on guys at Tatis’s level is really high.
True, which gives us this early excitement when they enter the organization but it’s still a crap shoot. For every Ken Griffey Jr. you have Mark Appel. First overall picks who both organizations probably felt really good about at the time, but only one still feels that way today.
The hit rate is better, which I think is why fans are so optimistic about the future in San Diego knowing that there are a a lot of guys in the system who have a very good chance of being quality major league ball players. We shall see how it all shakes out.
Umm…the ‘hit rate’ is not very high….and then some random guy says “true”…”
No it is NOT true….lol you guy really make me laugh
Yes you’re right, but this comment negates countless comments you made before acting like these guys are sure things.
No…and how did you get that from what I said….lol your world buddy
Oh sweet, just in time for the playoff push.
niice, very excited for this. definitely gives me an incentive to get out to the ballpark one last time this season.
preller better be telling green to pencil in urias 5/7 days a week.
When do Padres fans anticipate the window for contention to truly open up?
2082 give or take a year.
In 2017 they said 2019 earliest, this year they’re saying 2020 earliest.
About time
Urias for 2018 MVP! You heard it here first dont @ me BRO!
the Padres will trade him in a year or two for a nobody..
Yes, that would be a terrific idea.
Brb bookmarking this thread
Nice, I did that too. I like to see what people say now compared to 3 years from now and all the backpedaling people like to do and the “I never said that” comes in.
This kid is going to be a stud. The last pure hitter we had at second base you probably have to date back to Mark Loretta.
The list off the top of my head that never worked out there since:
Tadahido Iguchi
Orlando Hudson
Marcus Giles
Logan Forsythe
Jed Gyorko
Jace Peterson
Ryan Schimpf
The list goes on and on. The only guy other than Loretta was was a consistent contributor at 2B was David Eckstien. What a gamer that dude was.
Some former all stars, former 20 HR guys. Nobody can seem to hold down that position for more than 2 years.
Fingers crossed for Urias.
Yea but your the same guy that think Franmil Reyes & Cory Spangenberg are building blocks
Awesome idea bookmark this thread! LOL some guys are gonna need new profiles
Hey buddy, how’s that Padres being 4 games back of the Wild Card at the end of August prediction looking for ya?
Im not your buddy, this is the internet….loser
You referred to me as buddy first and now you’re saying you’re not my buddy? You flip-flop more than Hillary.
Don’t ignore the question tough guy. How is your “Padres will be 4 games back of the Wild Card in late August” prediction going?
Yea tell em West Coast Ryan
Power, HR, pop. Whatever.
Geez, stop already. There’s more to the game than that.
Exactly. Not every player at every position needs to be a power guy. Urias’ high OBP approach at the plate is exactly what the Padres need in their lineup. I’m exited to see him in action!
High OBP your counting minor #’s wow
More you say?…yea its called having a sub .300 slug and being sent back down to AAA
Problem is we having 1 guy (Renfroe) out of 9 positions that is a power guy…and we’re not even sure if he can hit right handed pitching (fyi: the majority of pitchers are right handed)
Hear lots Pads fans talking about this guy. (And their farm) The future is now.^^^
Is he related to Julio Urias from the Dodgers?
No relation.
Thank God #dodgerssuck
Preach!!! Go Pads!
How’s that going for you?
Here is piece number 1.
Next will most likely be either Mejia or Quantrill. Followed by Chris Paddack with Logan Allen not too far behind him.
The future is here Padres fans.
Only question is, what number is Urias going to don?
Mejia and Paddack will be next. Mejia is on the 40 and Paddack needs to be protected from Rule 5. Quantrill and Allen don’t yet
Hopefully #1 I was thinking #2 but some scrub already on the team wears it..
Mejia will be up next month, Allen and Quantrill probably relatively early next year and Paddack I’d assume midway through the 2019 season.
Im holding you to this prediction…tough guy lol.
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My sac is down here since you want to be on it lol, cant deny my fans
I mean, those are all the most likely (and most sensible) outcomes by a wide margin.
Now how is that “Padres will be 4 games out of the Wild Card in late August” prediction going?
Quantrill and allen wont be up till next year because of the rule 5
See Dennis Lin’s great March 22nd article in The Athletic about the signing of Luis Urias. I hope the Padres bring him up, play him, send him back down the the Minor league ring, bring him back up, and start him at very beginning of the 2019 season. I would love it if our organization becomes know for being both classy and
Continue: Being a professional, classy, and a great organization to play for. Not just a sad organization/team in a great city to live in. Imagine a team players want to play for their entire lives ala Mr. Tony Gwynn because of the the team (and the city).
There are many players now in the minors and if the (hot lava) talent keeps coming in to take the spots of those who chose to leave via free agency.
“… a Padres system that, the organization has long hoped, will usher in a golden age of baseball in San Diego.”
I’ll believe it when I see it. The only worthwhile thing about Padres baseball are Orsillo and Grant in the booth.
Orsillo is money. I enjoy watching when he is doing play by play.
They are nauseating
Future Altuve
Interesting that so much of the article is spent on discussing his lack of power. Its no wonder the game is devolving into three true outcomes when even a kid with this much talent must be looked at through a lens of “does he hit dingers?” Kid has great bat to ball skills and an uncanny knack to get on base yet you’re worried about a lack of power? No wonder kids only worry about hitting a homerun or throwing 100 when its all journalist focus on. A spiral to suckage and injury.
Pretty much the same exact thing happened throughout the draft process this year with Madrigal. Personally, I think both will be very good players, and the last thing they should worry about is home run totals.
Great point, exemplified by the Pirates’ treatment of Kevin Newman.
Having watched all of his college performances at SS over a stretch of three years at the University of Arizona, he’s been projected as a first round pick since his freshman season. Before his call-up on August 16th, he had a .297/.339/.398 slash line over 603 ABs in AAA, coming with a .988 FPct at SS. But since he only hit 4 HR over that period, his organization already made it known that they don’t think much of him due to his lack of power, while part of the fanbase rejects him for the same reason and want him gone after only 15 ABs in eight games.
On the other hand MLB.com and other websites keep ranking a caught juicer like 3B Michael Chavis at the top of the Red Sox’s prospect list because he hit 31 HR during his chlorodehydromethyltestosterone-infueld 2017 campaign. The fact that he’s a poor fielder doesn’t seem to matter since he could still be moved to 1B or DH.
And I’ve also read some laughably clueless comments from fans and self-proclaimed “experts”, bemoaning Nick Madrigal’s perceived lack of HR power and wondering whether he’s been worth a first round pick.
Having followed his Pac-12 collegiate career at Oregon State, I can only say that this guy is one of the most phenomenal and exciting baseball players that I’ve seen at that level.. And looking at his 2018 MiLB numbers, he’s sporting a .282/.329/.310 A+ slash line and has struck out only FOUR times in 135 PA across A and A+.
Nothing symbolized baseball’s persistent fascination with dinger-slamming brutes better than the “rehabilitation” of a notorious juicer and liar like Barry Bonds. Just recently the Giants as well as his Arizona State Sun Devils college program showered him, Mr. Big Head Baby Nuts, with honors for his “achievements” around baseball. It’s ridiculous.