The Padres are in agreement with reliever J.B. Wendelken on a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The right-hander will be in Spring Training as a non-roster invitee.
Wendelken returns to affiliated ball after two seasons in Japan. The 31-year-old turned in excellent results over a pair of years with the Yokohama DeNa BayStars. Wendelken put up a 1.67 earned run average across 86 innings in Nippon Professional Baseball. He struck out 22.2% of batters faced against an 8.8% walk rate.
Before heading to Japan, Wendelken pitched in parts of six big league seasons. He spent the majority of that time with the Athletics. Wendelken worked to a 3.62 ERA over five years in Oakland. He had a tougher time after landing with the Diamondbacks via August ’21 waiver claim. Wendelken allowed nearly five earned runs per nine through 47 2/3 frames in Arizona. The D-Backs outrighted him off their 40-man roster midway through the 2022 campaign.
The Padres have a handful of relievers locked into the Opening Day bullpen. Robert Suarez, Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada are all ticketed for late-inning roles. Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta should be in the middle innings, as the Padres would likely be unable to offload their multi-year deals in trade. Bryan Hoeing and Adrian Morejon will be on the big league roster in some capacity, though it’s not out of the question that they could win rotation jobs in Spring Training. That may only leave one or two middle relief spots up for grabs among the likes of Sean Reynolds, Tom Cosgrove, Stephen Kolek and Wendelken.
So glad you noticed my comment on the White Sox minor league signing and posted an article about it. Thanks.
Yuki and Peralta are locked into middle innings not because the Padres can’t offload their contracts. They are locked in because they are really good pitchers. Both were better than league average.
Oh, and you missed about 5 others that will be in the mix for a spot in one of the best bullpens in baseball.
When will then be now?
Soon…
Webby
So the Padres got their new pitcher from Japan after all!
Their first one of the offseason. Hopefully #2 is coming in the next day or two.
Was he the heaviest player in the league at 245 lb?
there’s this new fangled thing called google.com, you should try it some time…
Google is great if you want a dozen ads and six AI generated blurbs that have nothing to do with your inquiry.
We’ve actually come full circle and it’s now more efficient and reliable to just ask people like we did for thousands of years.
No.
Wendelken famously blew the save for the Reno Aces during the 2022 AAA championship game held in Las Vegas, leading to a title for the Durham Bulls!
Waiting on towin to come in soon with his insufferable complaining..
In 5..4..3..2..
Padres have a number of quality pen arms.
Suarez
Adam
Estrada
Morejon
Wandy
Matsui
Hoeing
Kolek (last year ruled 5, can’t be sent down)
Those are the likely 8 as of now to start the season in the pen.
Other pen options
Reynolds
Jacob
Cosgrove
Some other minor league guys
starters
Cease
King
Darvish
Possible 4-5 guys
Waldron
Vasquez
Brito
Nunez (rule 5)
Morejon
Hoeing
Kolek
Some other minor league guys will get a look.
Obviously signing Roki would be huge.
The most interesting from the list is Morejon. Was a starter, has been injured a lot. Was healthy last year and good out of the pen. If he can go back to the rotation and stay healthy that would be a big win.
Now they just gotta get the catching corps in order.
Still won’t beat the dodgers
The QOs for Cease King and Suarez is the worst possible outcome for extending the padres ability to compete the next couple seasons and no guarantee they fetch more at the deadline if padres decide to sell then.
Trading them now allows padres to fill gaps in LF,1B, rotation long term with cheap contacts and allows them to spend some money on old friends Yates and Scott and possibly someone like Carlos Estevez thus increasing options available in high leverage situations and the 9th.
I was following along until you said to spend money on more relievers. Who would start games for them at this point? Sure, they’d get lineup help, but you’re weakening a weakness to further bolster the strength of the team.
If they trade more than one of those guys, odds are they’re looking at a retool type of season and you’d waste money on closers to do what exactly?
Padres went 10-8 against them including playoffs. The Padres beat the Dodgers last season.
The Padres have no need to fill in at 1B and Ornelas will be solid in LF if Profar doesn’t resign.
Considering the fact that Profar has been working out with Padres players all offseason, its a pretty good bet he returns.
Keeping Cease, King, and Suarez is the best possible situation because it gives the team the best chance of winning now.
The Padres have one of the strongest bullpens in MLB. No need to add to it.
But then you don’t WANT the Padres to win Ryan. You wouldn’t have anything to complain about then.
Simm – Minor correction. Teams only can’t send a rule 5 pick down for the year you picked them. After that, normal rules apply. So with Kolek, the Padres only needed to keep him in the majors for 2024. They can send him down now.
Red- I believe because he was on the IL the last month or two he has to remain on the team to complete his year of active service.
Simm, did Brito make any starts for the Padres last season? I was under the impression that he was a reliever.
The guy this article is about is a pen option. I don’t think he would get an spring training invite if he wasn’t.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to try to hide a Rule V draft pick at reliever than as a starting pitcher?
Out- they sent him down to the minor last year and stretched him out as a starter. I don’t think he made a start with the padres but without looking I don’t remember for sure.
No Bregman news ?
If this doesnt convince Sasaki that SD is in it to win it….
Roki has entered the chat.
Roki has left the chat.
Doesn’t seem like wendelken is a bad option for a low leverage role. Until the wheels fell off in arizona. He had 3-4 era. On a minor league deal makes it better if he blows up you can cut bait quick, and give a younger player time to knock off some rust.
“Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta should be in the middle innings, as the Padres would likely be unable to offload their multi-year deals in trade.”
Anthony Franco, why would a team have difficulty off-loading these guys, or want to off-load them, especially Matsui? Both were above average last year when healthy and there’s no reason to assume they won’t contribute to the team through the duration of their contracts.
Second, why is it generally assumed by mlbtr writers of late that the Padres are trying to shed tons of salary to the point where even guys on fairly modest or even team-friendly salaries, such as Matsui, are being marketed for salary-dump type trades? The Pads are only $2M above the first tier of the CBT at this point of projection, and the FO has even said they’d consider exceeding the CBT if the right deal were to present itself. That doesn’t sound like a team in a fire sale.
If there is a quote from Padres FO or other credible source that would support this notion that the Padres are dumping salary or entering a fire sale I’d love to see it referenced with the claims in this article.