San Diego Padres: Tommy Pham returns to camp

San Diego Padres OF Tommy Pham returns to summer training camp after testing negative for COVID-19 twice.

Tommy Pham was able to get with the rest of the San Diego Padres team Friday after first testing positive for COVID-19. It will be interesting to see how quickly he is able to return to form and to see if he’ll be ready for Opening Day. He now has just under two weeks to get ready.

It will certainly be intriguing to see how things go with Tommy Pham returning to camp as I believe he’s the first player to come back in the middle of camp after testing positive. Whether he is fully game ready by Opening Day most likely depends on whether or not he able to keep up some sort of baseball workouts and training while quarantining himself.

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Whenever Pham is ready he will without a doubt be a core piece of this Padres team, who could be a sneakily competitive team in the shortened season. Pham fits into this perfectly as he’s been one of the most underrated players in the entire MLB for the past few seasons.

In the past three seasons, Pham ranks 19th in the entire MLB in fWAR at 13.6. Top 20 over a three-year span is pretty elite and is much higher than most people would group Pham, but he’s really been that good.

Pham’s consistency will undoubtedly boost a lineup that ranked 26th in the MLB with a .718 team OPS in 2019. Pham posted a very strong .856 OPS from 2017-19 and 16 DRS in LF where he is projected to start for San Diego. His 65 SB also ranks 14th in the past three seasons.

He is one of the few true five-tool players in the entire MLB and if he maintains this status in the 60 game season, he brings the Padres even closer to being a contender. Pairing Pham with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado gives San Diego lots of upside at the top of the lineup, on the base paths, and on the defensive side of the ball.

While the San Diego Padres are still most likely still a couple more pieces away from competing, Pham’s all-around skill set will still improve the team in just about every facet of the game. Fans should certainly be excited that he’s back and look forward to seeing him play.