Padres Editorial: Five Padres Who Need A Good Spring Training

1B- Yonder Alonso

One of the few positions A.J. Preller hasn’t touched (yet) is first base. Yes Will Middlebrooks can play there (more on him later) but the guy who will more than likely be the one to play there will be Alonso. After putting up promising numbers in his age-25 season a couple of years ago, the soon to be 28-year old is in a big year for him.

Alonso is the only left-handed bat the team has in its possible everyday lineup. Alonso doesn’t have to hit 25 homers with guys like Justin Upton and Matt Kemp around, but 15 with a ton of doubles would be a good help to the middle part of the order.

Being healthy would help too. He only played in 84 games last season and put up a .240 average with a .682 OPS. Tommy Medica is there to compete for at-bats along with non-roster invitee Brett Wallace. Alex Dickerson is coming back from injury as well.

If Alonso can’t get the job done, then it makes the Padres very right-handed and it has them in a tough spot to figure out first base.