New Padres Call Up Patrick Kivlehan Off to Good Start

Just who is this new Padre player named: Patrick Kivlehan?? All he did was hit a home run in his second Major League at bat.  A 450 foot one at that. Second longest this year at Petco.  To say he had been dreaming of that his whole life would be too cliche, but I said it anyways!

Also he is the first Padre to have a second hit to go with a first hit home run. On day two, Patrick had two hits, two walks and three runs scored in his four at bats. This major league life is a breeze.

But how did he get here?

Just recently on August 4th the Padres picked him off waivers from Seattle. Immediately he was sent to Triple A El Paso. There he hit .341 in 12 games. Then at 1:30 AM last Saturday morning (August 20th)  he got the “call”.  So off to Petco and his dream.

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The Padres have two highly touted Triple A Outfielders inching to come up, but who does AJ bring up to play Left Field? Patrick Kivlehan! I guess AJ wanted to see what he had. Besides why incur major league “time” so early for those other two.

Patrick played college ball for Rutgers where he hit .406. and was named Big East Conference Player of the Year. The Seattle Mariners selected him in the fourth round of the 2012 draft.

In the minors Patrick hit slightly over .300 in 2012 , 2013 and slightly under in 2014. It was in 2015 that his career hit the skids. While playing 3rd base he hit only .256 for Tacoma (AAA) . In December 2015 he was traded to the Texas Rangers, where he further flopped. Hitting .184 for the Round Rock Express  (AAA).  So after 37 games Texas traded him back to Seattle for a player to be named later. There at Tacoma (AAA) he hit .293 in 47 games. He  never was much of a power threat for a 3rd baseman, so Seattle, on probably what was a 40 man roster squeeze, waived him.

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Three days later the Padres claimed him.  I remember seeing the transaction blurb and wondered why?  How good could this minor league player be? However it looks like AJ snatched up another decent prospect.

The whole family was in attendance at Petco Park for both nights. According to the wife, the Home Run ball was retrieved for him. It will go on display in his father’s house along with “first” balls from Little League on up.

Welcome to the Big Leagues “Mr Hobbs”!