San Diego Padres Include Three Rule 5 Picks on Opening Day Roster

Final roster decisions have been made, and it should come as no surprise that the San Diego Padres have included all three of their Rule 5 draft picks on their Opening Day roster.

The way the Rule 5 draft works is that a team sets their 40-man roster up by a specified date in December, and if there are any vacancies, they can fill those spots with Rule 5 picks at the conclusion of the Winter Meetings. The San Diego Padres left some room on their roster on draft day and ended up grabbing the top three selections through two trades and one pick of their own.

The three players in question are Miguel Diaz, the first pick in the draft who was acquired from Minnesota, Luis Torrens from the Reds, and Allen Cordoba whom the Pads took third overall. Diaz is a right-hander that will undoubtedly start the season as a mop-up reliever having never pitched above A Ball. It will be an interesting fit with Christian Bethancourt also making the club as a pitcher/utility player. Both should certainly be used in one-sided affairs, but at least one of them may be facing some serious game situations if the opportunity presents itself.

Torrens, a catcher that was originally selected from the Yankees’ system, played his 2016 season primarily in A ball with Charleston. Torrens is just 20 years old and has played in just 52 games over the past two seasons after missing all of 2015 with a torn labrum.

Finally there is shortstop Allen Cordoba, whom Baseball America ranked at the Padres’ #29 prospect in their Prospect Handbook. They mention that he was the GCL MVP back in 2015 after batting .342 with a .401 OBP, 15 walks to 20 strikeouts, and 11 steals in 14 chances. Last season Cordoba went up to the Appy League, which is still Rookie ball, and improved on all of those stats over 50 games played.

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While the Padres have assembled some exciting talent on their roster this year, having three Rule 5 picks on a 25-man roster, and to have none of those picks even reach High-A ball, is a bit baffling. The front office must really like these three players a whole heck of a lot, because they will either be seeing the field entirely too much and will have heaps of growing pains, or they will be relegated to the bench and eat up valuable spots on the roster.

Two years ago A.J. Preller pushed all of his chips into the middle of the table and went for it, failing in spectacular fashion. Last season was more about re-collecting some of the assets that had been let go and building for a brighter day. This season appears to be a circus sideshow with the three Rule 5 picks and a two-way player on the 25-man roster.

The Padres rotation is headed up by Jhoulys Chacin, whose typically average performance may be helped by the friendly confines of Petco Park, but following him in the rotation are Clayton Richard, Trevor Cahill, Jered Weaver and his 83 mph fastball, and finally Luis Perdomo. Those five pitchers combined to accrue an fWAR of 2.1, which was all from Chacin and Richard, while Cahill held even and Weaver/Perdomo put up -0.2 and 0.2, canceling one another out. It’s also worth noting that Cahill was also a bullpen arm last season with the Cubs, starting just one game all year. He’s now their number three starter.

With a rotation that could summon the four horseman of the apocalypse and three Rule 5 picks on their roster, the Padres just aren’t going to be very good. But therein lies the beauty of baseball. They will still have fun players to watch through all of this suckage. Manuel Margot should be a treat in center, while Hunter Renfroe in right has some serious pop and should slide right into the middle of the order before long.

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Add in another catcher on the roster, Austin Hedges, and the team has a solid foundation from which to build upon this season in addition to Wil Myers. 2017 won’t be the easiest season to watch from a fan’s standpoint, but there will be glimpses here and there of the team that the San Diego Padres are building for their next run, and that could make them well worth watching through what is expected to be a dumpster fire of a season.