The Padres announced that they’ve added left-hander Travis Radke and infielders Seth Mejias-Brean and Jason Vosler to their 60-man player pool. All three will head to the club’s alternate training site. The additions bring San Diego’s pool up to a total of 57 players.
Radke, 27, pitched well across three minor league levels in 2019, working to a combined 2.64 ERA with 9.5 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 71 2/3 innings of relief work. He allowed only two home runs in that time and posted a ground-ball rate north of 60 percent as well. A 25th-round pick back in 2014, Radke underwent Tommy John surgery that cost him the entire 2016 season and much of the 2017 season. Radke has never been considered a high-end prospect within the organization, but he carries a cumulative 2.22 ERA since returning from surgery and also threw well in a 2018 Fall League stint.
Mejias-Brean made his MLB debut with the Friars last season and clubbed a pair of home runs in a brief look that included 33 plate appearances. The 29-year-old can play all over the infield and is a career .269/.334/.382 hitter in just shy of 1500 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
San Diego acquired Vosler, now 26, in the 2018 trade that sent right-hander Rowan Wick to the Cubs. He split his time evenly between first base and third base with the Padres’ Triple-A club last year, posting a quality .291/.367/.523 slash with 20 long balls, 19 doubles and four triples in 425 trips to the plate. Between the right-handed-hitting Mejias-Brean and the lefty-swinging Vosler, the Padres look to have added some largely MLB-ready infield depth that can cover multiple positions and platoon scenarios.
SMB!
seth mejias-brean shares a birthday with my girlfriend and she thinks he looks like waluigi. i’m rooting for the guy
Hopefully they get rid of Hedges soon. No matter how good his defense is, he’s helpless with the bat. Maybe he should try batting left-handed? It wouldn’t be much worse.
SMB can probably catch in a pinch
From a catcher stand point, especially with DH, Hedges and his pitch framing and defense isn’t something you can easily replace. Any production he doesn’t give you offensively should be offset by the DH who doesn’t field.
Now if they wind up using automated strike zones then I’d agree he needs to be replaced.
But you can tell there’s definitely stark differences between Hedges calling a game and when Mejia is behind the plate.
Standing from a viewers stand point, his pitch framing isn’t anything special this season and with the threat of robot umps… hedges “stealing strikes” will be a thing of the past
His defense is overrated as hell. Despite not playing as much this year, he already leads the league in passed balls. Last season he was second in the league in errors, despite also not playing nearly as many games as the leader did. His pitch framing is good I’ll give him that but to say his defense can’t be easily replaced is a stretch.
Based on def rating from fangraphs.
Minimum 300 plate appearances he ranked only 2nd to Realmuto at 27.6 dwar compared to Realmutos 27.8 dwar in 2019. Next closest was Vazquez at 20.8
2018 he ranked 4th in defense at 17.7.
2017 he ranked 4th again at 21.7
Your opinion is cool though.
And in 2018, Matt Chapman had the most errors by any third baseman with 1000 innings played in the field. From 2017 to 2019, Hedges was worth +53 DRS, which is the 4th most in baseball of any position despite playing fewer than 2500 total innings behind the dish. He also has been an outstanding pitch framer and has caught 32% of all runners that have tried to swipe a bag on him in his career. Plus he wasn’t even second in the league in errors in 2019. He was 51st, and was worth 1.5 blocking runs in 2019. Since 2017, he’s been worth 3 blocking runs saved.
But sure, his defense is at replacement level.
They knew that Hedges was a weak hitter when they drafted him. The Padres were so enamored with his defensive potential that they took a chance that he would “develop” into a major league hitter.
World Series here we come!
Does a player added to the pool have to quarantine first?
i imagine they’ll have them test negative twice first
You know, if they close this pool it may help.
Why are they putting Mejia brean on the 60 dude is awful
Hope Vosler does well… Radke? Any relation to Brad?