Adam Frazier fills in the blank for San Diego Padres

When the San Diego Padres landed Adam Frazier from the Pittsburgh Pirates, they got the piece they have needed to lift them to the top of the NL West race.

Frazier, who the Padres have acquired from Pittsburgh, fills the team’s most glaring need as it attempts to haul down the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. That need is for a reliable old-school leadoff hitter.

San Diego Padres get piece to take NL West

There aren’t many table-setting on-base experts in the modern, power-oriented game. But Frazier is decidedly among the elite in that skill.

He’s a .327 batter with a top-ten .392 on base average. He does it the old-fashioned way: putting the ball in play.

Frazier leads the National League in base hits (125) and he has struck out just 45 times. That’s a 10 percent whiff rate, almost unthinkably low by modern standards, where the average approaches one strikeout every four plate appearances.

Could the Padres use a leadoff hitter who gets on base ahead of Fernando Tatis and Manny Machado? Tatis, remember, is the National League leader in slugging (.651) and OPS (1.024). Machado, like Tatis, has 67 RBIs.

Thus far, Padres manager Jayce Tingler has tried to finesse the absence of anybody on the roster with true leadoff skills by what amounts to a platoon of outfielders Tommy Pham and Trent Grisham. Both are competent. They hit in the .260s, and their .360s on base averages are completely respectable by comparison with league averages.

But neither is a classic, much less elite, leadoff fit, as Frazier is.

Tingler’s immediate problem will be where to play Frazier. His natural position is second base, a spot Jake Cronenworth has filled competently.

But Cronenworth can also play first base, a spot that might open up if GM A.J. Preller can find a taker for what remains of Eric Hosmer’s substantial contract.

The option also exists for Frazier to do time in the outfield, relieving Pham, Grisham or Wil Myers. His numbers, including his 131 OPS+, are better than any of theirs, and a lot better than Hosmer’s 100.

The Padres have a set mid-order lineup, particularly if they can drop Pham into a run-production slot behind Tatis and Machado.

What they have needed is a force capable of improving both their on base average and their total bases. While San Diego is upper half in both categories, the Padres are behind the Dodgers in both and behind the Giants in bases.

Those two categories are precisely Frazier’s strengths. That means this trade has the potential to elevate the San Diego Padres’ lineup to elite status.