The Padres have signed catcher Kevin Plawecki to a minor league deal, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports (via Twitter). The veteran backstop will report to Triple-A.
Plawecki joins his third organization in less than four months, after first signing a minor league deal with the Pirates heading into Spring Training. The Bucs let Plawecki know that he wouldn’t be making the Opening Day roster, so Plawecki then used the opt-out in his contract and landed with the Nationals on another minors deal. Earlier this week, Plawecki again opted out, since the Nats didn’t have plans to add the catcher to their MLB roster.
The path to the majors might be a bit clearer in San Diego, since Luis Campusano has missed the last month with a thumb sprain and now probably won’t be back until after the All-Star break after undergoing surgery to fix his ailing thumb. Pedro Severino also just opted out of his own minor league deal with the Padres, opening up a catching vacancy at Triple-A El Paso.
Austin Nola has been the most of the work behind the plate for the Padres this season, with rookie Brett Sullivan making his MLB debut and playing 15 games since Campusano’s injury. Neither Nola or Sullivan have provided any offense, and while Plawecki is known more for his glove than his bat, it could be that the Padres want a more experienced catcher to act as a backup, and Sullivan could head back to Triple-A.
Plawecki has mostly played in a backup or part-time capacity over his eight big league seasons, and he has provided some quality offense at times during stints with the Mets and Red Sox. For his career, Plawecki has a .235/.313/.341 slash line over 1426 plate appearances in the Show.
Yes, this will solve….this will solve nothing. Let’s spend more money & get nothing. One of the best lineups in BB And like the Mets, more $ yields nothing if they can’t play together. Sad but true.
Inconsequential minor league depth signings are what MLBTR commentors call rage juice.
Agreed. It’s a trigger for some.
Curly, Please keep commenting about everything Padres and say the same thing over and over. That won’t get old…
@beauner, over and over again, SDP are under achievers for 2023, my brother is a Pads fan, he’s chokin’ down his lunch. Something is seriously missing with this talented team, what say you?
Melvin needs to throw a tantrum. Flip over a few swivel chairs. He’s not leading a zen retreat pandering to delicate egos. He’s supposed to be managing a baseball team of head cases. Act accordingly.
With Campusano out they needed more depth at C in the minors is all. They could sign Johnny Bench in his prime, but that wouldn’t solve the problem as Bench as a Padre would only hit .221 with 4 HRs and and OPS of .683 over 550 ABs.
Let’s hope Plawecki isn’t the victim of the ‘Padres Strike Zone’ one the most inconsistent and worst in baseball. As a hitter he be the recipient of many balls called strikes outside of the zone. Couple the terrible strike zone with the dead ball the Padres routinely recieve and a team full of All-Stars is relegated to the worst batting average in baseball. Team should be hitting for power yet has one the highest ground ball rates in the majors. Why? The dead ball.
My goodness. You really are serious about all the nonsense you vomit all over Pobres posts, aren’t you? Thought you may just be a troll, but you seem genuinely overwhelmed by the lineup’s lack of production. So much so, that your fragile psyche needs to invent conspiracy theories to help you come to terms.
The roster AJ assembled was always severely flawed. The pitching staff isn’t built for the grind of 162. Lineup is top heavy, with glaring hole at C, 2nd & CF. The DH’s are badly leaking oil as they lurch & sputter towards the end of their careers. The hitting coach was hired because he’s ‘ Manny’s Guy’. And speaking of Manny; that guy is the clubhouse leader?
But yeah. MLB hates the color brown…
LOL
Heck yeah I’m serious.
You forgot to like your comment
Nah man I’m good bro
@ Towinagain. I’m a man of science not conspiracy and don’t put a lot of faith in the supernatural, BUT have you considered also the San Diego Sports Curse as a contributing factor? eh? I’ve been around sports and San Diego sports long enough to know that curious, unprecedented bad things that happen to San Diego teams on a regular basis defy scientific reason. Chargering has never just been limited to just the Chargers (though they were the ultimate case study my goodness). Just adding this variable to your thinking.
Walla – totally agree! The front office for the Padres has to be one of the worst in baseball. It is not that they are stingy! They spend money, but it is usually spent unwisely…Bogaerts until age 41…$280,000,000… He was never a good defensive SS in Boston (and I have watched he since 2013).
When players arrive in SD many are on the downhill slide of 30 at the beginning of their long term contracts or at least their best years are behind them. This is the recipe for decades of over priced under performing teams. SD is one of 5 teams that have never won a World Series, and I truely am surprised that with the likes of Machado, Soto, Bogaerts, Darvish….that they are 21-26. I do not expect them to win a WS let alone a division title, but 21-26 with the talent they have is amazingly. I guess you could say the team is poorly constructed…
Good move, but Padres may need to trade for a better 2 way catcher.
What is with their team?
A Lineup full of All Stars and only guys hitting are Tatis and Bogaerts.?!
And, Manny is paid to win a Championship(all these guys are),
And, Manny’s focus is press conferences announcing he is one of the buyers of a local soccer club?
Pitching is very good, but underperforming.
Juan SOSO is still hitting for poor average and not getting the clutch hits that
lift a team up like championship players do?!
SOSO’S hitting has been going south for SOSO since he was traded to San Diego last trade deadline?!
Reminds me of when Darryl Strawberry landed with the Dodgers.
His hitting went into the TANK.
Even Hall of Famer Eddie Murray called Strawberry out on it
saying, as he passed him in the on deck circle,
“How many fast balls are you gonna take right down the middle
before you start hitting and helping the team”?!
Even” Mr nice guy”, Tommy La Sorda, said to the press
“We can pipe in BOOS like @ Shea if that will help him get going” .
Does San Diego need to “pipe in boos”
to get SOSO focused and hitting?!
OR is he too worried about getting a table at the restaurants by the Beach?!
Actually bogaerts isn’t hitting anymore, only Tatis and soto are really hitting
They don’t need to pipe in boos. Fan base has them covered
Ha ha. The irony. 3rd highest payroll and we’re recycling trying to make ends meet… When Campusano returns we need to get him some playing time and let him develop. Sounds like a new thing but we should give it a shot
Rays must be spending over 100M less than the Padres
and, right now, the smart money is on the Rays not the Padres.
Padres are spending ONLY 171M more than the Rays in ’23?!
And, Padres are spending ONLY 180M more than the Orioles in ‘
23?!
Both teams are playing much better than the Padres at this point.
Rays look like a serious World Series Contender.
Don’t know if the Orioles have enough players to seriously challenge for a World Series title in ’23, unless they surprise @ the Trade Deadline.
Its still early Padres have the talent to get on a roll come August/September. Although the front office probably expected 1st or 2nd place and at least over .500 at this point
The Padres have finished under .500 10 of the last 12 years, but with one of the highest payrolls they finished 89-73 and a wild card. You have to think with all the all star players they have they can do better.
This needs to be the Padres year as the Dodgers let Justin Turner, Jansen, and Trea Turner (all stars) leave through free agency. It is the best opportunity for a division title in quite a while. Hopefully for them they do not choke, but that looks like where they are currently at….
It’s gonna be a tough year for the padres to make a wild card lotta teams playing better than what they are on paper
Dodgers came back to the pack letting some of their veterans go and breaking in a number of rookies.
Padres should be winning the NL West handily.
Players are fools to wait until the 2nd half to get hot.
Yes, every team has injuries, no excuses!
Finally, Padres Ownership has been opening its wallet and spending
and the Padres players are making them look very foolish for doing it!.
Let’s just hope it’s a delay in this talented team coming together and playing up to the level they’re capable of…
The Padres as an organization are so broken. When will ownership learn and send AJ Preller packing? Dude is great and grabbing headlines but bad at actually winning anything. He’s had his job longer than 26 other GM’s in baseball. That is ridiculous.
Preller has been very good at drafting talent and stacking the Padres farm system.
What he is not as good at is developing that talent.
And, Preller is terrible when trading.
He over values talent from his trading partners and under values the talent he is sending out of town, consistently.
AJ Preller has traded away so much talent! If he just held on to a bunch of those guys,
then the Padres would have been much better off.
Numerous deals have blown up in Preller’s/the Padres faces.
The Mike Clevinger deal jumpstarted the Guardians and lifted them to playoffs contention.
Preller basically gave 1B Ty France to and a package of young players to the Mariners for a catcher who can’t hit
(Nola) and few others.
Googled and found 10 of the Best Guardian Trades in their team history.
3 of those deals are with the Padres.
The Padres got hosed in all 3 of those deals( Preller made 2 of those deals).
A major chuck of the CURRENT Guardians competitive roster is courtesy of the Padres farm system!?
Another former Padres GM gave the Guardians Sandy Alomar Jr
and Carlos Baerga who become the core of another Guardians World Series team(s).
If I was Padres ownership, I would not be letting Preller make trades.
P:reller gets hosed on many of his deals.
Soto is a good player, but unless the Padres win a World Series Championship with him on the roster, then they got hosed on the Soto deal.
And. Padres should STOP TRADING WITH Cleveland and Tampa.
The Padres get hosed every time they trade with the Rays or Guardians.
Yes – Padres need a new GM! We have known that for a long time….glad Dave Dombroski is not available.