San Diego Padres agree with Seth Smith on two-year extension

The San Diego Padres might not have a general manager, but they now have outfielder Seth Smith for two additional years.

The terms of the extension, provided by Corey Brock of MLB.com (Twitter link), are as follows:

2015: $6M
2016: $6.75M
2017: $7M (team option, $250k buyout)

This makes the deal worth a total of $13 million.

You might be wondering why Smith chose to sign the extension. Here’s Smith (via Friarwire)

"“I wouldn’t have stayed if I didn’t think we could win. My first question was, ‘are we going to try to win?’ The answer from ownership was yes.”"

This deal does make sense for both parties. This year was Smith’s final year in going through the arbitration process, so he was in line to become a free agent after this season. Not the case anymore. This extension also appears to take Smith “off the market” if any club had their eye on acquiring the versatile outfielder in a trade deadline deal.

With the extension being only for two years and taking the above words from Smith into consideration, the Padres will have to make those efforts to improve the team pretty soon. Some thought this would be a year in which the Friars could contend. Some within the baseball media had tagged the Padres as a dark horse wild card selection.

Hasn’t been the case so far, and if June’s offensive production is any indication (wRC+ of 40), then a lot of offensive players will need to be brought on board. The Padres own a record of 37-47, 10.5 games behind division-leading San Francisco and in third place in the NL West.

The 31-year-old Smith has constructed a slashline of .281/.384/.506 with nine home runs and 25 RBI. He’s also scored 33 runs. He was acquired by the Padres from the Oakland A’s in exchange for reliever Luke Gregerson.