Looking At Padres Free Agent Projections From Fangraphs

Dave Cameron over at Fangraphs does a great job. He’s an enjoyable read. The GM meetings kick off on Monday, and Cameron did a top 55 Free Agent Prediction for each team. Here’s what he says for the Padres:

"I’d expect them to be the most aggressive team signing international players this winter, so the bats all come from overseas. The arms, though, come from MLB, as I’m giving them Edinson Volquez (3/$27M), Gavin Floyd (1/$6M), and Josh Johnson (1/$3M), as I think they’ll need to replenish their rotation after trading a few of their current starters away for more bats."

I agree with him on a few things. One, I believe they will be very aggressive in the International market for free agent bats and there are certainly a few out there. I think it’s very possible that Ian Kenendy is dealt for a bat or two which would lead them to go into free agency and add an arm. I do think Josh Johnson will be coming back to the Padres.

However, I can’t see either Floyd or Volquez coming to SD. Floyd is brittle, and they would already have a pitcher in Johnson who gets hurt all the time, so why exacerbate the issue?

Volquez was released by the Padres back in 2013. Released. Yes it’s a new regime and Volquez was great last year, but how much of that was having Russell Martin behind the dish with his pitch framing ability? I can’t see them going round two with Edinson.

The Padres are poised for an interesting off-season, some of these projections I can’t really see happening.