Padres Designate Keyvius Sampson To Make Room For Shawn Kelley

The San Diego Padres announced today, in a corresponding move that coincides with the acquisition of reliever Shawn Kelley earlier today from the New York Yankees, that the team has designated minor leaguer Keyvius Sampson for assignment. Sampson was the Padres’ fourth round pick in 2009, and has been ranked in the team’s top 30 prospect list over the past half decade. 

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Sampson, who has a good fastball that sits around 95 mph, was removed from the 40-man roster to make room for Kelley, who will be placed in the Friars bullpen in 2015. Sampson has a tough season in 2014 at Triple-A El Paso, notching a bloated ERA of 6.68 while working out of the bullpen and the starting rotation. Sampson worked 91 2/3 innings last season, and recorded a solid K/9 ratio of 9.3 Along with his heater, Sampson also throws a changeup and a slider. Command issues have plagued Sampson throughout his young career, as he abandoned what has been termed a “below-average” curveball in favor of further development of the aforementioned slider.

A.J. Preller and the Padres front office continues to shuffle personnel, in an attempt to make the big league club competitive right out of the gate in 2015. This is no rebuild, but a complete overhaul of a roster that was severely lacking in multiple areas during the past several seasons.