Padres Rumors: Could Eric Stults Return?

When the Padres had their 40-man roster crunch, one of their more surprising moves was designating Eric Stults for assignment. According to UT-San Diego’s Jeff Sanders, it may have been a money issue.

“To say nothing of enduring baseball’s second-worst run-support among qualified starters, the results were just short of astonishing even if it didn’t always work out in the win-loss column. Especially over his last 11 starts, when he went 5-4 with a 2.74 ERA, 40 strikeouts and 17 walks over 65-plus innings.It was the kind of run that left you to believe the Padres might find room to retain Stults if it weren’t for one ominous number: $2.75 million.As in Stults’ salary for 2014.Taking that second-half surge into consideration, the folks at mlbtraderumors.com would have projected Stults’ arbitration value at $4.6 million had the Padres opted to bring him back for another season.”

We all know about the depth the Padres have in the rotation. Even with Ian Kennedy as trade bait, they have the arms to cover, and a way they can improve the offense is to trade one of those arms. 

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If they do move an arm, Sanders mentions how the team could try and bring back the lefty on a cheaper deal.

Stults was clearly a victim of the Padres offense last year. He wasn’t as bad as his numbers say, especially in the second half of the season. Stults could have his options in the free agent market once the bigger names either get traded or sign, but Stults can still pitch.

Don’t rule out a chance he’s back with the Padres in 2015.