San Diego Padres: Three steps towards World Series contention in 2020
By Ben Fadden
2. Acquire a controllable offensive first outfielder
There were a lot of questions involving the San Diego Padres outfield at the beginning of the 2019 season. There might be more questions going into next season.
As I mentioned, they traded Franmil Reyes to Cleveland–who was in the middle of their lineup– which put trust in Hunter Renfroe who was the best all-around outfielder on the roster at the time.
But Renfroe’s offensive performance went downhill in the second half of the season, which might have been attributed to his right ankle injury.
In the second half of the season, he has hit just 5 home runs with a sub .200 average compared to a .252 average with a team-leading 27 HR in the first half.
Renfroe’s inconsistent season means that there is not a single outfielder that I can confidently say will be starting on Opening Day in 2020.
Therefore, the Padres need to acquire an offensive outfielder, who is preferably left-handed to balance out the order.
Taylor Trammell and Edward Olivares could come up to the big leagues sometime next season, but they won’t be counted on to have consistent at-bats from the end of March until the end of their season.
Some options that A.J. Preller has is David Peralta and Starling Marte.
Peralta is getting up there in age and only has one year left on his deal, but that may lower the asking price from the Diamondbacks. Peralta kills the Padres, as he has a .937 OPS at Petco Park.
Marte has the ability to play both left and center field and can hit against righties, something the San Diego Padres current outfield brass hasn’t been able to do consistently.
Adding a controllable outfielder who can hit would help out the most important addition of the off-season…