San Diego Padres: Catcher Francisco Mejia in SoCal

With the addition of Francisco Mejia on Thursday morning, the San Diego Padres now have 10 of the top 100 prospects in the MLB.

It’s a beautiful sentence for me to write and read. Earlier this week I predicted that it was likely that Cleveland would be the landing spot for San Diego Padres closer Brad Hand, and the return was exactly what we were hoping for. MLB ready, 15th ranked prospect, Francisco Mejia. See? It’s good to be picky.

As of now, Mejia will be starting things off in Triple-A with the El Paso Chihuahuas but of the Friars ten prospects he’s clearly the most MLB ready of the bunch:

Austin Allen, the Padres other top catching prospect is still working his way through Double-A and likely won’t arrive in the MLB for another year. They’ll have some time to see how Mejia develops at the MLB level and figure out how to proceed with Allen from there.  Despite Mejia’s recent versatility in Triple-A, it looks as though the Padres have plans to keep him behind the plate for the foreseeable future.  Though if their outfield situation ever becomes a bit less crowded, he can be slotted in one of those positions as well. And if Mejia turns out to be as dominant as they hope, they even have the option of moving Allen for more MLB ready talent to create a team that we probably thought we wouldn’t see for another three years.

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Mejia’s slash line in Triple-A thus far has looked promising, .279/.328/.426, with an OPS of .755. It would be great to see that OPS rise a bit more, but I think that’s something that’s going to come with plate discipline as time goes on. What I think is crucial here for the Padres, whose offense has been their main point of woe this year, is that Mejia’s scouting report mentions his raw power from both sides of the plate:

“The switch-hitting Mejia has natural hitting ability from both sides of the plate. Though his approach is aggressive, Mejia generates consistently hard contact to all fields thanks to his advanced bat-to-ball skills and outstanding barrel control. His physical strength and bat speed generates sneaky raw power, especially from the left side, and he’s tapped into it more regularly as he’s climbed the ladder.”

Next: A Farewell To Brad Hand and Adam Cimber

Mejia has only had 15 at-bats at the major league level thus far, but here’s to hoping that we’ll be seeing him by late August to early September. It may be easy to stay frustrated and impatient with a ball club that’s rebuilding, but the Padres continue to make the moves in the right direction.