San Diego Padres Should Wait Out Manuel Margot’s Funk

The San Diego Padres are in quite a conundrum regarding their uber-talented yet badly slumping centerfielder, Manuel Margot.

The San Diego Padres don’t necessarily need to keep Manuel Margot in their outfield rotation. Heck, they don’t even need to keep him at the major-league level, as they have more than enough other options to move around out there.

Travis Jankowski has all but secured a starting spot in the absence of Wil Myers, who, as per reports, has no set timetable for his return to baseball activities. Franchy Cordero is getting better every single day, so he’s got to stay in the lineup.

Matt Szczur (.220/.291/.340) is out-hitting Margot at this point, albeit in a third of the at-bats, and Cory Spangenberg has shown to be effective when he gets the chance to play.

That leaves Padres’ skipper Andy Green in a tough spot when deciding what to do with his 23-year-old enigmatic future cornerstone piece.

Margot has all the potential in the world but obviously is in the grips of a nasty slump that, if not addressed quickly, could end up stunting his development.

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Margot has performed well in the past

Margot did all he could in the minors, slashing .298/.348/.419 with 32 stolen bases and 21 doubles in 129 games with Triple-A El Paso. Even last season he came up and hit .263 with a .721 OPS, 13 homers, 39 runs batted in, and 17 stolen bases in 487 at-bats with the big club.

This season, things have gone terribly for Manuel Margot. He’s currently hitting .191 with a paltry .521 OPS in 136 at-bats. He looked like he was snapping out of it a few times, only to regress again soon thereafter.

While a trip to El Paso to help bring his confidence back has a decent chance at working, as it has for many young players with substantial MLB experience in the past, it has its ramifications.

A young kid like Manny Margot may not respond well to that. He might see it as a demotion instead of a learning experience.

It truly is a slippery slope. If he’s onboard with the move, great. But if he’s not mature enough as a ballplayer to accept that trip for what it really is, it could have more negative effects than positive.

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This writer believes letting the young man break out of the doldrums here at the major-league level. Turning it around here could be a lot more beneficial in the long run than doing it down in Triple-A.