Improve the Defense
The Padres were the worst defensive team in the National League, per ratings used by Fangraphs. While there was some change in the latter part of the season as some of the veteran players were traded off or released, like Matt Kemp, Melvin Upton, and Alexei Ramirez. Guys like Travis Jankowski and Manuel Margot were elite defenders in their time in the big leagues.
The biggest position of concern is shortstop. Ramirez was absolutely dreadful in the field last season, and when he left, no one really showed anything positive. Actually, that’s quite literal. Per Fangraphs’ UZR rating, not one player who played shortstop for the Padres this season produced a positive number in UZR. Utilityman Adam Rosales posted the best rating, but in a scant 71 innings. Luis Sardinas was acquired late in the season and played just over 260 innings, but he was also negative in value. He has the tools to handle the position at at least a league-replacement level until super defender Javier Guerra is ready, but his offense will need to come along to be able to keep him in the lineup each day.
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The outfield should be much improved this season as the team gives Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot two outfield spots with the left field spot up for grabs among guys like Alex Dickerson, Jankowski, and Cristian Bethancourt. Those guys all play much better defense than the team was seeing from Upton and Kemp, so the outfield should see some improvement as it sits.
Third base and second base will be an interesting place to watch. Yangervis Solarte is not a natural third baseman, but he was one of the better hitters for the Padres in the times he was healthy, so it’s hard to get him out of the lineup. He did rank well as a second baseman in limited time last year, while Ryan Schimpf fared well when he replaced Solarte after injury. Perhaps swapping those two in their primary 2016 positions for 2017 would be advantageous, but of course there is Carlos Asuaje, acquired from the Red Sox, who is considered a very solid defender at second base, so he could also factor into this, possibly moving Schimpf into a bench/utility role.
Next: Reds Offseason Priorities
The last thing to note was that there were many guys coming off of the bench as fill-in players who were absolute zeros defensively – guys like Brett Wallace, Jabari Blash, Oswaldo Arcia, and even Alexi Amarista has been a poor defender around the infield, even though he has the ability to play multiple infield positions. The team will need to consider this to help their pitchers as the Padres pitching staff had the highest ground ball rate in the entire league this year, yet they were hitting those ground balls to a very poor defense. That’s a scary thing!