Padres Add Valverde And Elbert On Minor League Deals

Every Spring Training, teams look to add depth and bring in veteran guys who are trying to hang on and fight for their careers. Sometimes, you get lightning in a bottle. Sometimes they end up getting cut. You just never know. The Padres are hunting for some extra bullpen depth and did that with signing two veteran relievers according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy: Jose Valverde and Scott Elbert.

Valverde was the closer for a short period with the Mets last season. Why short? He went 1-1 with a 5.66 ERA. In 2o innings, he gave up 24 hits, walked 10 and found himself released in May.

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Elbert was another former Dodger draft pick that was added, so you know Logan White had something to do with the signing. Elbert recovered from injury in 2013 and in 2014 at three different minor league levels went 0-3 with a 5.85 ERA. At the major league level he went 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA in seven games only pitching 4.1 innings.

Again, these aren’t big deals, however, if they have anything in the tank, they gave the Padres additional options when filling out the bullpen. If not, February and March will be the only time you see them.