Rymer Liriano Era of Hope Ends for the Padres

At one time Rymer Liriano was considered the next Padres homegrown star. He was promoted to the big league club in 2014 with hopes that it would be more of a break-in period than a try-out. His ascent seemed like a formality – just show us something at the major league level. When he showed nothing and spent another season in AAA last year, the Padres didn’t see much more out of him. This week as they added Alexei Ramirez Liriano was designated for assignment.

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In those 38 games for the Padres in 2014 he struck out 39 times. Last year he had a good season at AAA El Paso, but struck out another 132 times in 131 games. He did hit .292/.383/.460 and added 14 home runs and 18 stolen bases. Yet apparently between the rise of Hunter Renfroe and Alex Dickerson, not to mention Jabari Blash who was picked up with a Rule Five draft, Liriano wasn’t in that mix.

He will likely be picked up by another team that is willing to a take a chance on a quality outfielder who is still just 24 and his power numbers seem on the rise. He flashed good defense with the Padres and a number of the teams might find him useful for the organization. The move does highlight another pre-Preller draft pick that A.J. apparently just doesn’t have the patience for and doesn’t share the optimism the previous regime(s) saw with certain players.

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Liriano was drafted by Kevin Towers back in 2007 out of the Dominican Republic. He was in Baseball America’s Top 50 prospect list as recently as 2011.

A few games into his major league career he launched a monster home run into Petco Park but it would be his only major league home run to date. The writing may have been on the wall when he was not called up last season in favor of Dickerson and Cody Decker. We will keep you updated as we hear more about his future, but I would be surprised if he wasn’t picked up by another team.