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Padres News: Reaction To Baseball America’s Top 10 Padres Prospects

By Jason Evans

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The Padres had quite a fleet of prospects coming into this off-season. The former regime lead by Josh Byrnes brought in a good amount of talent through the draft and trades. After Byrnes was dismissed, the Padres brought in some more prospects when the traded Huston Street to the Angels.

Then new GM A.J. Preller came into town and flipped over the apple cart. He traded guys like Joe Ross, Jesse Hahn, Trea Turner (though he won’t be until June because he was just drafted). In fact, he traded eight of the Padres top 20 prospects according to Baseball America. 

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Here is who Baseball America has as the top 10:

Turner is second although we all know he’s going to the Nationals in June so that doesn’t really matter. The rest of the top five could be in the major leagues at one point or another this year.

Matt Wisler comes in at one and even though if you look at his minor league numbers from AAA last year, you would be surprised, you have to remember that the PCL is like Coors Field to the 10th power. Just watch him in Spring Training.

Austin Hedges is fourth and is one of the top catching prospects in the game. The question is can he hit.

Hunter Renfroe is third and could be knocking on the door for some playing time in the outfield if an outfielder goes down. If he performs well in AA and can move up even further, he’s playing himself into a possible September call-up.

Cory Spangenberg and Rymer Liriano already had a taste of the majors last season and could be called upon at anytime this year. Spangenberg’s versatility could help him make the opening day roster.

Fernando Perez put up a .284 average with a .776 OPS in High-A last season and could move up quickly. Jose Rondon was a big part of the Street trade with the Angels and could be the shortstop of the future.

Michael Gettys hit .310 and stole 14 bases in 52 games in rookie ball. Last year’s second round pick could have a bright future. His emergence may have had something to do with Mallex Smith being a part of the Justin Upton trade.

Lastly is a guy Padres fans have been waiting for to finally be healthy in Casey Kelly, who’s coming off another arm injury.

While the Padres may have traded a good amount of prospects, they still have guys left that they can use. You could see four to six of these guys at Petco this year. That’s pretty good production. With the 13th pick again this year, the Padres can bring another talented asset in. The future is bright even with recent subtractions from the prospect pool.

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