Padres Press Clips Tuesday, December 12, 2017

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Padres move on to other needs after being turned down by SD Union Tribune Lin 2 Shohei Ohtani

Padres roster review: Allen Cordoba SD Union Tribune Sanders 4

Padres offseason leagues: Gabriel Arias flexing muscles SD Union Tribune Sanders 6 in Australia

After years of coming up short, Alan Trammell is a shoo-in SD Union Tribune Lin 8 for Hall of Fame

Preller moves forward after missing on Ohtani MLB.com Cassavell 10

Could Cozart be a fit for Padres at shortstop? MLB.com Cassavell 12

MLB Winter Meetings Rumors: Padres Remain Bleacher Report Chiari 14 'Strongly in Mix' for Eric Hosmer

Padres move on to other needs after being turned down by Shohei Ohtani Dennis Lin

For reasons that remain ambiguous, Shohei Ohtani chose the Los Angeles Angels over six other clubs that now must face a reality without a potential two-way star. People continued to wonder Monday as the winter meetings officially opened and the runners-up trained their attention on alternative plans. Ohtani has provided little explanation aside from the “connection” he felt with the Angels.

The Padres, whose front office contains a noticeable Japanese presence, made one of the most concerted bids for Ohtani. A presentation last week in Los Angeles involved at least a dozen team officials. General Manager A.J. Preller spoke with the Japanese star in the latter’s native language.

“Disappointment at first,” Preller said of his reaction to Ohtani’s choice. “But pretty quickly, there’s understanding we have a lot of work in front of us. … We were prepared for a lot of different scenarios and pretty quickly moved on to the next options.

“We put a lot of time and effort into it, and I think we just tried to show him why San Diego was a great fit. Ultimately, that’s all you can do: put your best foot forward, see where it goes. You’re never 100 percent certain why guys choose certain places. But I was really proud of our group and the work that we did.”

It could take years to judge the work the Padres do this offseason. To date, San Diego’s flirtations with Ohtani and free-agent first baseman Eric Hosmer have supplied the headlines. But any discussion could wind up being critical, particularly for a franchise that hasn’t played a postseason game since 2006.

The Padres have been monitoring the market for Zack Cozart, the top free agent among shortstops and a potential cure for the franchise’s longest-running weakness. As in most other cases, it is not an ideal answer; Cozart, who is coming off a career season with Cincinnati, will turn 33 next year. Other options that have been linked to San Diego include free agent Alcides Escobar and Philadelphia’s Freddy Galvis.

What should the Padres commit to an acquisition, knowing that prospects Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Urias loom on the horizon? (Urias, a second baseman, has shown he can handle shortstop in stretches.)

“The question we keep wrestling with as a group is how much resources we want to put into a stop-gap filler guy,” Preller said. “If there’s a guy we think has a little bit more value for us, that definitely makes sense. But I think we have some internal options that we’re excited about. 2

Down the road, we’re very excited about the shortstop depth we have in the system. It’s taken a few years to build that up, but hopefully this is one of the last years we’re talking about that.”

The Padres remain intrigued by Hosmer, Escobar’s longtime Royals teammate, whom they hosted for a visit Thursday in San Diego. Their interest stems from Hosmer’s relative youth, left- handed offense and leadership ability. Multiple reports have connected them to another free- agent first baseman, 31-year-old Carlos Santana. In this instance, however, present signs point toward due diligence.

As for Hosmer, the Padres would face a couple of obstacles in any attempt to sign the 28-year- old.

One: Agent Scott Boras is seeking a nine-figure contract. San Diego’s record is an $83 million extension for Wil Myers.

“Ron (Fowler) and Peter (Seidler), they’re well-versed in terms of the options that are out there and how that affects us payroll-wise over the course of the next few years,” Preller said of the team’s lead owners. “We want to be smart and intelligent about our decisions and make sure our process is good, but also their support is, they want to put a winning product on the field and understand that that’s going to involve investment. We’ve invested a lot in the (farm) system over the last few years, and as an organization we understand that there’s going to be an investment to the big-league club here. I think they’re not just open to it but excited about it.”

The other hurdle: Myers plays first base, which has looked like a better fit than the outfield.

Recently approached about a potential move to a corner-outfield position, the team’s highest- paid player said he would be willing to accommodate an addition of Hosmer’s caliber.

“He’s athletic and he’s got some versatility,” Preller said. “I think we look at it as a plus, and if we get a chance to upgrade elsewhere and we think that makes us a better club in the short- and long-term, he’s open to talking about going back to the outfield. … The only thing he’s really told me is ‘I just want to win. I’d rather win at any position than lose at one locked-in position.’ That’s a credit to him. It’s good when you have a player that that’s the way he sees it.”

Notable

• Outfield prospect Franchy Cordero, who hit .228 in a brief major league sample last season, ranks second in the Dominican Winter League with a .907 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. While Jose Pirela is the in-house leader in left field, evaluators think Cordero, a 23-year-old with a rare combination of power and speed, could make a strong push. “He’s got to get more consistent with his game and the strike zone,” Preller said. “But I think his winter-ball experience just continues to show ultimately what his ceiling can be and that he’s a major league player.” • The Padres have been in “fairly constant” communication with right-hander Jhoulys Chacin’s agent, Peter Greenberg, Preller said. Chacin is a free agent after going 13-10 with a 3.89 ERA last season in San Diego. • The Padres’ 40-man roster is full, meaning they will have to make a move if they want to participate in the Rule 5 draft Thursday. San Diego was the most active team in that draft each of the last two Decembers. 3

Padres roster review: Allen Cordoba Jeff Sanders

ALLEN CORDOBA

• Position: Outfielder • 2018 Opening Day age: 22 • Bats/throws: R/R • Height/weight: 6-foot-1 / 175 pounds • Acquired: Rule 5 draft in December 2017 • Contract status: Earned $535,000 in 2017; won’t be arbitration-eligible until 2020 at the earliest • Key stats: .208 avg., .282 OBP, .297 SLG, 4 HRs, 15 RBIs, 17 runs, 2 steals, 18 BBs, 54 Ks (100 games, 227 plate appearances)

STAT TO NOTE

• 56 – Plate appearances after the All-Star break, down from 171 through the first half of the season. Cordoba’s OPS dropped from .616 before the All-Star game to .459 the final three months of the season.

TRENDING

• Idle – The Panama native had never played a game above rookie ball when the Padres selected him with the third overall selection in the Rule 5 draft. St. Louis’ front office doubted that such an inexperienced player could stick all year in the majors, but the Padres – early in this rebuild project – didn’t find it all that hard. They gave him starts in left field (24), shortstop (15), center field (2) and right (1) and plate appearances off the bench (29) in blowout losses. His highs include a pinch-hit homer off Jaime Garcia for the first of his career, a pair of three-hit games, a .308 May and the strides he showed defensively in left field, where he was praised by Padres manager Andy Green as a potential plus defender down the road. The lows? He hit .095 against left-handed pitching, .148 in June and received only two starts over the final two months of the season.

2018 OUTLOOK

• Cordoba’s sparse playing time down the stretch could be a predictor of his 2018 role. The Padres, because of the Rule 5 rules, had to keep him on the active roster last year to keep him in the organization. Now, they can stash him in the minors to continue his development and an assignment to Double-A San Antonio – likely as an outfielder – 4

could be on the table if Cordoba doesn’t wow the staff in camp. If that’s the case, a 22- year-old in the Texas League is not the least bit out of place.

PADRES POWER RANKINGS (Currently 40 players on 40-man roster)

1. Carlos Asuaje 2. Carter Capps 3. Colten Brewer 4. Buddy Baumann 5. Jabari Blash 6. Jose Castillo 7. Allen Cordoba

Padres offseason leagues: Gabriel Arias flexing muscles in Australia Jeff Sanders Fernando Tatis Jr.’s breakthrough 2017 campaign saw him become the top prospect in the Padres organization, if not one of the best in baseball. At the same time, buzz was also building about another shortstop that one team official last summer predicted would also “be among the top prospects in the game” before long: Gabriel Arias.

Arias’ winter in the Australian Baseball League isn’t lowering expectations much.

The 17-year-old Arias hit two homers on Dec. 7 and added a third the next day, putting him two off the league lead through his first 15 games for Canberra. He is hitting .259/.310/.537 with four doubles, 13 RBIs and 21 strikeouts after advancing to low Single-A Fort Wayne in his first year since signing for $1.9 million out of Venezuela in 2016.

Baseball America recently ranked Arias No. 10 in the Padres system.

While that’s still a far cry from cracking a top-100 list at the moment, a second team official thought Arias had developed so rapidly in the system that he was challenging the likes of Luis Urias and Josh Naylor as the organization’s second-best position-player prospect behind Tatis.

A potential Gold Glover with plus bat speed and budding gap power, Arias hit .242/.266/.258 with four RBIs, a steal and 16 strikeouts in 16 games at low Single-A Fort Wayne to close 2017. The year started with Arias hitting .275/.329/.353 in 37 games in the Arizona Rookie League before the Padres tested him with an aggressive promotion to the Midwest League, where he should start the 2018 season some two years after signing as a projectable 16-year-old shortstop.

“I remember going to see him train in a parking lot doing cone drills,” Padres international scouting director Chris Kemp recalled in September at the Padres On Deck Game “The motivation he had as a tryout player and to see him get to this point, it’s exciting.”

AFL top prospects Naylor (San Antonio) and right-hander Andres Munoz (Fort Wayne) were named to the Arizona Fall League’s top prospects team on Monday. The circuit’s managers and coaches voted based on both performance in the AFL and project-ability.

A middle-of-the-order hitter for league champion Peoria, the 20-year-old Naylor hit .304/.337/.494 with three homers, six doubles and 14 RBIs in 19 games.

The youngest player in the league, the 18-year-old Munoz’s 100 mph fastball helped him post a 1.04 ERA, 11 strikeouts and just four hits allowed in 8 2/3 innings.

DOMINICAN WINTER LEAGUE

• OF Franchy Cordero (El Paso) leads the league with a .503 slugging percentage. He is hitting .338 (3rd) with four homers (T-2nd), 18 RBIs and six steals in 42 games for Escogido. … CF Manuel Margot (San Diego) was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored in his first game for Este over the weekend. … RHP Hansel Rodriguez (Fort Wayne) has a 6.35 ERA, nine strikeouts and three walks in 5 2/3 innings for Este.

MEXICAN WINTER LEAGUE

• OF Jabari Blash (San Diego) is hitting .231/.394/.615 with three homers, five RBIs and seven walks in eight games for Jalisco. He has struck out 12 times. . OF Allen Cordoba (San Diego) is hitting .236/.311/.309 with one homer, two RBIs and a steal in 17 games for Hermosillo. He has struck out 15 times. … RHP Gerardo Reyes(Lake Elsinore) has a 2.04 ERA, 13 strikeouts and 10 walks in 17 2/3 innings for Obregon.

AUSTRALIAN WINTER LEAGUE

• CF Buddy Reed (Fort Wayne) is hitting .317/.377/.492 with a homer, nine RBIs and two steals in 15 games for Canberra. … RHP Lake Bachar (Fort Wayne) is 3-0 with a 1.31 ERA, 17 strikeouts and a 1.31 WHIP in 20 2/3 innings (four games, three starts) for Canberra.

VENEZUELAN WINTER LEAGUE

• C Luis Torrens (San Diego) is hitting .275/.340/.366 with one homer and 18 RBIs in 38 games for Magallanes. … RHP Trevor Frank (El Paso) is 1-1 with one save, a 3.32 ERA, 10 strikeouts and 10 walks in 19 innings for Zulia.

After years of coming up short, Alan Trammell is a shoo-in for Hall of Fame Dennis Lin

Alan Trammell spent 15 years on a Hall of Fame ballot without coming close to being elected by Baseball Writer’s Association of America members. He peaked in his final attempt, when he received 40.9 percent of the votes. Seventy-five percent is the minimum required for enshrinement.

On Sunday, the Modern Baseball Era Committee, which included eight Hall of Famers and New York Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson, ended the deliberation over Trammell’s career. The shortstop from Kearny High is, officially, headed to Cooperstown. Thirteen of 16 panelists voted for him.

Trammell will be inducted next summer alongside former Detroit Tigers teammate Jack Morris, who received 14 votes. Before Trammell and Morris, the last living player to be elected by such a committee was Bill Mazeroski in 2001.

Trammell, 59, joins Ted Williams as the only Hall of Famers who attended high school in San Diego.

“When I ranked myself as a player, I thought I could do a lot of things well, but there wasn’t one thing that just was at the top,” Trammell said in a press conference Monday at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. “But I think that’s part of the criteria when you look at all the ingredients of becoming a Hall of Famer, is a well-rounded player, and that’s just who I was. I couldn’t be anybody else. That’s just the good Lord gave me this ability, and I tried to do the best I could.

“But for my peers to be able to recognize that, that’s very much appreciated, very much appreciated. I look at that, and I’ll look on it for my lifetime very fondly, that it didn’t go unrecognized.”

Over 20 seasons, all with Detroit, Trammell hit .285 with 185 home runs, 1,003 RBIs and 236 stolen bases. He was the 1984 World Series MVP, batting .450 with two home runs as the Tigers beat Tony Gwynn and the Padres in five games.

He could always defend, too, even from the time he was a 160-pound signee out of Kearny High. Trammell, who made his major league debut at 19, went on to win four Gold Gloveawards.

“Young boy, all I wanted to do was become a major league baseball player,” Trammell said. “And now to become a Hall of Famer, it’s really undescribable.”

Trammell is hopeful he and Morris will have familiar company in July. On Sunday, Trammell shared a flight to Orlando with a group of fellow San Diegans — Brad Ausmus, Bud Black, Bruce Bochy, Trevor Hoffman, who is on his third Hall of Fame ballot, and John Boggs, who has represented Gwynn and Trammell, among others.

Trammell received news of his election as he deplaned. The others awaited him at baggage claim. As he approached, he gave a thumbs-up. A celebration ensued.

“That contingency of the San Diego guys has a couple of guys that potentially could be up here in a short period of time, one being Trevor Hoffman, one being Bruce Bochy,” Trammell said. “...I don't know if I could have dreamt that any better as far as the way that came down, to be able to celebrate that with a few.”

Preller moves forward after missing on Ohtani Padres GM will use Winter Meetings to improve team's roster By AJ Cassavell MLB.com Dec. 11th, 2017

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Ultimately, Shohei Ohtani didn't choose San Diego. But the Padres still surprised many in the baseball world by becoming one of the favorites in the sweepstakes for the two-way Japanese phenom.

Speaking for the first time since Ohtani's decision to sign with the Angels, Padres general manager A.J. Preller noted that he was proud of his team's pitch, even though "disappointment" came with the end result.

"I'm really proud of our group," Preller said from his media availability at the Winter Meetings. "We put a lot of time and effort into it, and I think we just tried to show him why San Diego was a great fit. Ultimately, that's all you can do -- put your best foot forward, see where it goes. You're never 100 percent certain why guys choose certain places. But I was really proud of our group and the work that we did."

The Padres organization boasts a number of connections to Ohtani, leading many to speculate on his interest in San Diego. Instead, Ohtani chose the Padres' closest neighbor.

"There was disappointment at first, but pretty quickly, there's understanding we have a lot of work in front of us," Preller said. "From that point, it gave us a chance to move on, and then start lining up other options and opportunities."

Preller, Myers discuss OF move

Preller did not address rumors that the Padres have been linked with free-agent first baseman Eric Hosmer. But he acknowledged that he's spoken with Wil Myers, the club's franchise first baseman, about a move to the outfield.

"We see him as a first baseman, we see him as a guy that can play a quality first base for us," Preller said of Myers. "But ... if we get a chance to upgrade elsewhere and we think that makes us a better club in the short-, and long-term, he's open to talking about going back to the outfield."

Myers played the outfield during each of his first three big league seasons, including 2015 with the Padres. He shifted to first in '16 and was outstanding defensively, before taking a step back in a mistake-filled '17 season.

The Padres signed Myers to a six-year extension in January, and Preller lauded Myers for his willingness to mold his game for the club's needs.

"The only thing he's really told me is, 'I just want to win, and I'd rather win at any position than lose at one locked-in position,'" Preller said. "That's a credit to him. It's good when you have a player that sees it that way."

Chacin reunion possible

The Padres remain in talks with right-hander Jhoulys Chacin, though no deal appears imminent. Chacin posted a 3.89 ERA -- including a 1.79 mark at Petco Park -- for the Padres last season.

Still, there's more than one spot to fill in the Padres' rotation. Last week, Preller professed a desire to enter camp with 10 big league-caliber arms. Currently, the Padres have six or seven candidates.

"We're going to look to add to that, definitely," Preller said. "My guess is we come out of here with a few more options. Whether it ends up being 10 legit starting pitching options, I don't know. But you need a lot going into camp."

Could Cozart be a fit for Padres at shortstop? Team weighs options knowing prospects are on their way By AJ Cassavell MLB.com @AJCassavell Dec. 11th, 2017

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- This winter, the Padres' solution at shortstop might be more than a one-year stopgap.

Free-agent Zack Cozart, who spent the past seven seasons with Cincinnati, has been linked to the Padres, through reports in the Boston Globe and Cincinnati Enquirer. The fit seems obvious.

For the past decade, the Padres have been looking to fill a long-term hole at shortstop. Cozart is the best player available on a shortstop market that is thin on both talent and potential suitors. He's also the only player in the group likely to command a multiyear deal.

In each of the past three offseasons, the Padres have underwhelmed in their pursuit of a shortstop. Clint Barmes, Alexei Ramirez and Erick Aybar each served as little more than one- year replacement-level options.

This year's search, however, has already taken on a bit of a different feel. Most of that is due to the emergence of prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. At 18, Tatis put forth one of the most impressive seasons in Minor League baseball. He skyrocketed up prospect rankings, while setting the franchise home-run record at Class A Fort Wayne.

Tatis is rated the 52nd best overall prospect, according to MLBPipeline.com.

. 25th, 2017 Tatis could make an impact at the big league level as soon as 2019, and general manager A.J. Preller added that the club is high on prospects Luis Urias and Javier Guerra as well. (Urias projects as a second baseman, but Preller left the door open for a move back to short.) In any case, the Padres' will pursue a shortstop this offseason with those youngsters in mind.

"It really comes down to the individual player and the situation, and we'll figure out what's the best thing for us going forward," Preller said. "We've looked at it as: Be open about it. Just because we have some shortstop depth doesn't mean we're not listening to trade possibility or multiple year possibility in free agency."

How does Cozart fit into all of this? Well, he's coming off a career year in Cincinnati, in which he batted .297/.385/.548 and earned his first All-Star berth. He'd be an obvious upgrade over the Padres' recent shortstops -- both offensively and defensively. (The latter is especially important, given the Padres' 2017 rotation was the most ground-ball happy in baseball.)

. 26th, 2017 But the 32-year-old Cozart would undoubtedly command multiple years on his contract -- perhaps as many as three. In that regard, Cozart's presence in 2019-20 could allow the Padres to bring Tatis along more slowly. Should Tatis force his way to the big leagues earlier than expected, Cozart could conceivably switch positions.

"The question we keep wrestling with, as a group, is how many resources we want to put into a stop-gap filler guy," Preller said. "If there's a guy we think has value for us [long-term], that definitely makes sense. But I think we have some internal options that we're excited about.

"Down the road, we're very excited about the shortstop depth we have in the system. It's taken a few years to build that up. Hopefully this is one of the last years we're talking about [finding a shortstop]."

A quick progression for Tatis could solve that problem. So would a multiyear deal for Cozart.

Both possibilities remain in play.

MLB Winter Meetings Rumors: Padres Remain 'Strongly in Mix' for Eric Hosmer MIKE CHIARI DECEMBER 12, 2017 The San Diego Padres are reportedly looking to make a run at prized free- agent first baseman Eric Hosmer, according to Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. Per Heyman, the Padres are "thinking big" and remain "strongly in the mix" for Hosmer's services. The 28-year-old Hosmer spent the first seven years of his MLB career with the Kansas City Royals before hitting free agency. He is a 2016 All-Star and four-time Gold Glove Award winner who is coming off his most productive offensive season to date. Hosmer hit a career-high .318 last season to go along with 25 home runs, 94 RBI and 98 runs scored for a Royals team that finished 80-82. He also appeared in all 162 games last season for the first time in his career and hasn't missed more than four games in a single campaign since 2014. Hosmer twice helped Kansas City reach the World Series, and in 2015 he had 17 RBI in the postseason en route to the Royals winning their first championship since 1985. The Padres are coming off a difficult season that saw them finish 71-91. They performed well beyond expectations, though, as their Pythagorean win- loss figure was just 59-103, per Baseball Reference. After previously acquiring big names such as Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Craig Kimbrel and James Shields leading up to the 2015 season, the Padres stripped down their roster and went with almost all young players in 2017.

Their best offensive player was first baseman Wil Myers, who clubbed 30 home runs. If San Diego is able to sign Hosmer, it will likely be forced to move Myers, who came up as an outfield prospect for the Royals, to the outfield on a full-time basis.