San Diego Padres: It’s Time For Luis Urias To Make His Debut

The San Diego Padres are in clear need of an offensive spark plug. It’s time to bring up highly touted prospect Luis Urias.

Thursday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants was a disaster. The San Diego Padres recorded one hit against Chris Stratton (1.40 career WHIP), coming from the unlikeliest of sources, Clayton Richard.

Clayton Richard’s pinch-hit single in the third inning was all she wrote for the Friars in their 7-0 loss, sending their record to 4-10 on the year.

The Padres found themselves, yet again, on the wrong side of history.

Scream “small sample size” all you want, but the early results are startling. Here’s how the Padres rank offensively, as of Friday morning.

Batting Average- .222 (25th)

On-Base Percentage- .291 (28th)

Walks- 38 (25th)

Strikeouts- 133 (2nd)

Only Eric Hosmer, Jose Pirela, and Freddy Galvis are hitting over .300. Odds are Pirela and Galvis won’t keep up that momentum and will stabilize to .250-.280 over the next few weeks.

The team is without Wil Myers and Manuel Margot, two of their best hitters, and their return will hopefully help pick things up. We aren’t sure how long this Myers injury will linger and Margot will need some time to feel 100% after taking a blatant cheap shot by the Colorado Rockies.

It’s time the San Diego Padres called up Luis Urias.

Luis Urias continues to do what he does best in El Paso.

Just over one week into the MiLB season, Luis Urias is producing just as he did in Double-A. Urias, 20, is hitting .385 (10-26) with a .515 OBP, a 1.054 OPS, and a 183 wRC+.

He’s also showed off his extremely quick hands and plus-plus hit tool by sending 57% of balls in play to the opposite field. Urias has even flashed some real power, sending this ball out of the park in a hurry to record his first home run of the year.

Warning, you can’t watch this clip just once.

Urias held his own in spring training last month. The third-ranked Padres’ prospect (36th overall) recorded five doubles and a .394 OBP in 16 games and was given serious consideration by many to make this major league ballclub. Standing in the way of an Urias promotion, that extra year of team control.

Well, the time has come, should the Padres promote the hot-hitting infielder.

Luis Urias and other top prospects can now be called-up while major league clubs keep the extra year of control. The Padres have already hit on Joey Lucchesi, can the same happen with Luis Urias?

Carlos Asuaje hasn’t been terrible; he’s an average ballplayer. Currently, he’s slashing .200/.298/.300/.598 and playing mediocre defense. This isn’t a knock on Asuaje, he’s a major league player. However, he’s one more suited for a bench/utility role that can come in late in games to help work deep counts and put a little more speed on the base paths.

Next: How Long Of A Leash Does Bryan Mitchell Have?

There’s no denying that Luis Urias is the future at second base, not Asuaje. Make the move San Diego and promote Luis Urias.