What Do The Padres Do With Tim Stauffer?

Tim Stauffer has been a Padre for a long time. He’s been on the team when they were good and on the team when they were bad. He’s started and he’s pitched in relief. Now, free agency is coming up. What do the Padres do with their longest tenured player?

Stauffer became a full time reliever in 2013, though he did make three starts this past season. Stauffer will turn 33 in June. He struck out 67 in 64.1 innings this year. He allowed 92 baserunners between hits, walks and hit batsman which is way too many.

Stauffer could be a nice swingman/reliever who can pitch in the fifth or sixth if your starting pitcher struggles. Stauffer won’t cost that much either. He made $1.6 million this past season, so him making let’s say $2 mill next season wouldn’t be that big of a deal.

However, the Padres have plenty of arms, including starting pitchers. Maybe they keep, for example, Jesse Hahn on the team in relief instead of starting. Hahn and Stauffer would serve a similar kind of role, and Hahn would cost less. Even if the Padres increase payroll, which they are expected to, you can still save some money in the front end of the bullpen and put that towards other players arbitration raises for example.

Stauffer has been a Padre for years. However, the Padres or so deep that I’m not sure they will have a role for Stauffer next season. Sometimes you have to move on from a player and this is one of those times.

Final verdict: Dump