The Padres have designated righty Colin Rea for assignment along with infielders Cory Spangenberg and Allen Cordoba, the club announced. San Diego also designated Christian Villanueva, whose contract rights will be sold to a Japanese club.
Meanwhile, the Friars completed a busy day of 40-man roster maneuvering by adding a host of players. Catcher Austin Allen, infielder Ty France, outfielder Edward Olivares, and righties Pedro Avila, Anderson Espinoza, Chris Paddack, and Gerardo Reyes will all be protected from the Rule 5 draft.
It’s a rather notable group of players to be pared from the roster for the Padres. Rea was once considered a future rotation piece but will perhaps be best known in San Diego for being forcibly re-acquired after health issues arose following his trade to the Marlins.
Spangenberg, meanwhile, was taken tenth overall in the 2011 draft. He just hasn’t turned the corner in the majors. In 2018, Spangenberg slashed .235/.298/.362 with seven home runs in 329 plate appearances. He projected to earn $2.3MM in arbitration; instead, he’ll likely be a popular target for teams looking for versatility and/or hoping he still has some upside in the tank at 27 years of age.
Finally, Cordoba was one of the more hyped Rule 5 picks in recent memory. Many felt the Pads had made quite the crafty move in snatching him from the Cardinals. The San Diego organization carried him for all of 2017 to secure his rights, even as the unpolished youngster struggled. After an injury-plagued 2018 season in which he hit even worse at the High-A level than he had in the majors, Cordoba was punted from the roster.
Michael Gettys left unprotected. Unless he’s part of the Segura Leake deal.
Nope. Even if that does happen he still had to be placed on the 40-man roster by 5 PM PST today to be protected
Hasn’t he fallen off quite a bit? I wouldn’t think he has much following anymore
Why Spang over Pirela?
Probably $, Spangey is at least a million dollars more expensive.
Fine. Why Cordoba over Pirela? I honestly would have kept every single guy the Padres got rid of today over Pirela.
I wonder the same thing. They both don’t hit but Spangenberg has speed, defense, and versatility over Pirela
I Second that question
Preller traded for Pirela but inherited Spangenberg.
He also inherited Renfroe. Who would you rather DFA between him and Pirela?
Pirela was claimed from the yankees, wasn’t he?
Nope. Acquired in trade for Ronald Herrera (who himself was acquired in trade for Kyle Blanks)
And, in the ‘things come full circle’ file, Herrera was outrighted by the Rangers after clearing waivers today.
Because Greg Garcia and Spangenberg are the same left handed utility player but Garcia is cheaper and can handle playing some SS and can get on base and the Padres save about 1.2m by playing him over Spangy. Usually two utility players are needed so it seems Pirela being right handed will keep his job.
Villanueva and Cordoba are both RHH utility players who are pre-arb. Both are better than Pirela.
Villy was good against LHP only. Cordoba took a step back going from MLB to A ball and with plenty of SS depth ahead of him he was seen as expendable. Might aswell use the 40 man slots for guys who are closer to MLB ready which Cordobas bat isint even close to.
Pirela had a .604 OPS against RHP’s. He was also “good against LHP only.” Cordoba can play lots of positions as shown in his time with the big club in 2017. Before saying that he can’t play any of them well, remember who we are comparing him to. I’d rather use the 40-man slots on guys with actual upside.
Cordoba should have never been in MLB in the first place and only was because he was taken in the Rule 5 draft from a ball and had to be. The rise of tanking has ruined the purpose of the Rule 5 draft.
Cordoba played single A last year. There might be a decent shot no one claims him and they can keep him by outrighting him to the minors
Or Guerra? Spangy may have been inconsistent last year, but he showed signs of being decent in prior years. Guerra hasn’t hit since he came from Boston. Is the only difference that Guerra is one of AJ The Genius’ trades?
Guerra > Pirela
perhaps defensively but not offensively. Pirela, for all his faults, is a decent hitter.
Had a feeling some of these guys were going to be traded or dropped. Garcia makes about 900k opposed to Spangenbergs 2.1m estimate both LH but Garcia can actually play some SS and get on base.
Ah, finally someone is paying attention. Good job. I hope to hell that Meyers isn’t the opening day starter at 3rd. Praying for a trade.
Are the Padres trying to set a transaction record today?
They just traded Rowan Wick to the Cubs.
Which if I refreshed I would have noticed earlier.
paddack was the only name i needed to read. in all honesty, he should have been worthy enough to warrant his own article just to announce his 40 man spot
chris paddack is the light. chris paddack is the way
I give your last 2 sentences serious downvotes.
come on, it’s so obviously facetious and funny
Absolute truth! The dude’s minor league numbers are mind boggling. He is THE CHOSEN ONE.
Destined to be the #1 through #5 starter. The only pitcher they’ll ever need. Another Preller find!
What about Jose Pirela and Brett Kennedy? Sad.
If they were interested in dropping Brett Kennedy he never would have been called up in 2018 in the first place. Better to expose him to Rule 5 than waivers. Right there with ya on Pirela.
Kennedy was a surprise at El Paso and not really part of the plan. I’m guessing that the Padres are thinking fluke.
Then why didn’t they DFA him or dump him today with Wick, Rea, and Lockett? If he wasn’t in the plans, they should have jettisoned him with the rest of the flotsam.
Its really amazing we won more than 50 games these past few years…Some of these guys over the past 3 seasons wont ever see the big leagues again.
Just like Jedd Gyorko, who Preller paid the Cardinals to take.
Why are Pirela and Assuaje still on the roster?
Shrug. I think that they probably won’t be on the roster by Spring Training. Betting Preller sells Myers and picks up multiple contracts and uses them as DFAs at that point in time.
Someone has to play, even if they’re inconsistent. Without them, the infield consists of Hosmer, Urias, Garcia and Guerra.
Go Rockstar GM…You got the stage…..nice!
If the Padres can’t swing a trade for someone to play 3rd, is Solarte a stopgap option?
No.
spack! man, figured we wouldn’t see you around once MLB shut down their commenting system. didn’t realize you had an account over here. still can’t get SDUT to log me in, i had tried hitting you up there a month or so ago when the main boards went down.
a majority of us have all shared contact information through the years and we keep in touch on facebook for the most part, but we still do message via email. let me know if you’re interested in swapping info. glad to run into you on this vast space we know as the internet
I’m retiring in 10 days, and I’m going to have to shift all of my email registrations to my gmail account.
Have you tried Madfriars?
no but i did consider it. i looked up a bunch of other blogs that had commenting systems, but mainly i was looking for a place for a bunch of us MLB.com commenters that are now refugees in need of a new message board home. thankfully the lot of us were able to pass information from the old boards and we’ve met on facebook on a chris paddack fan page. more than welcome to look that up and join us if you care to do so. will double check the traffic on madfriars again. it was between that eastvillagetimes, gaslampball and another site that i’m blanking on, but most of us just use the facebook page now instead.
@spack
n.mc107@yahoo.com
drop me a message whenever you’re free if you’d like, will forward you where most of us hang now.
Rather roll with Ty France
If a trade isn’t made, I could live with that for a year or less to see how he does. I’d rather have that than have Meyers back in the infield.
Is it just me or does it seem like Cory Spangenberg had been with the Padres organization for about 20 years?
Seems like he and Beltre broke in the same year.
The Padres could give the state a California a lesson on how to clear dead wood.
Remember how upset Cardinals fans were in 2017, watching the Padres stash Cordoba all year?
Car accident last off season really derailed him.
They can claim him back now if they are so inclined
Spangenberg has Yankees signing him pronto
That would be an awesome temporary fix until Didi comes back.
Spangenberg’s never been a shortstop. Second, Third or Left field.
How could anyone think that I was serious. Smh
Can’t be much worse than he was in LF
sarcasm? he’s terrible at baseball.
Lol ….That’s what I was thinking about Colin Rea earlier. I am jazzed about the moves made today. It burns when you let a player be grabbed by the Rule 5 draft. We need our hot lava minors to erupt as Padres!
Hot lava still makes me laugh. Thanks Scotty.
About half the team should be flipped. Get ready for another 70 win season.
Rule 5 roster crunch for next year will include the following:
Fernando Tatis Jr, Cal Quantrill, Logan Allen, Esteury Ruiz, Josh Naylor, Jorge Ona, Andres Munoz, David Bednar, Buddy Reed, Eguy Rosario and anyone who wasn’t protected or taken this year.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of them aren’t with the Padres come late February.
Those guys will all be on the active roster before next season
The Padres are aggressively seeking starting pitching. If it’s via trade some of them won’t be.
There’s no chance that Ruiz, Ona, Rosario and probably Bednar will be on the active roster next year.
Well Richard and Stammen will be FA. There’s two spots. I have five other guys I would DFA without hesitation. We still should try to consolidate some talent into a big leaguer to avoid losing anyone to Rule V next season.
I don’t think that’s true of Ruiz or Ona
Ruiz signed in 2015. Ona 19 y/o when he signed. They are Rule 5 eligible next year.
Supposedly Myers is getting traded to Seattle for Leake and Segura.
Truth?? Or are you fishing? I know Seattle has problems but, really???
There is a reason there is still what we Padre fans would call dead weight on the 40 man. When the trades and FA signings happen, heads are gonna roll
Can all the Padres fans on here who constantly acted like Spangenberg had trade value and would include him in trade ideas please issue an apology to the rest of us who knew that obviously he did not?
Someone will sign him. Ultimately, he just can’t hit well enough to be an everyday player
Oh boy Spagenberg was taken number 10 overall in the 2011 draft. Just behind Lindor and Baez and right in front of George Springer who was taken at number 11.
Brandon Nimmo at 13 and then Jose Fernandez at 14 and Donny Gray at 18.
Spangenberg = bust!!
Well, he was taken there for signability reasons; nobody, including the Padres, thought he was the tenth-best player in that draft. The previous ownership/talent evaluation group for the Padres was notoriously cheap in the draft, which was how they ended up with such a bad series of drafts. (This is the team that drafted Matt Bush first overall when literally no talent evaluator had him anywhere near that high).