San Diego Padres: Freddy Galvis Joins Elite Padres Company

San Diego Padres shortstop Freddy Galvis became just the fifth player in franchise history to achieve this.

You can debate his offensive statistics until you’re blue in the face. You can also debate whether or not the San Diego Padres should try and bring him back for another season, or two. However, you cannot debate that Freddy Galvis came to play baseball every single day. With his start on Sunday afternoon against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Freddy Galvis became just the 5th player in franchise history to play in all 162 games.

The short list includes some iconic names, like Joe Carter, Dave Winfield, Steve Garvey, and Adrian Gonzalez.

Galvis finishes the season with a .248 average, .299 on-base percentage, and .680 OPS. He set or tied career-highs in doubles (31), runs batted in (67), and walks (45) while recording 13 home runs, five triples, and eight stolen bases.

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This is now the second-straight season in which Galvis has played in all 162 games, achieving the feat with the Philadelphia Phillies last season. Over the last four seasons, Galvis has played in at least 151 games in each year. The only other players to finish the 2018 season with 162 games played are: Freddie Freeman, Nick Markakis, Matt Olson, and Trea Turner.

Galvis set a career-high in a few advanced analytics, as well. His 6.9% walk rate, 85 wRC+, and .294 wOBA were also career-highs. They may not be great numbers and are well below league-average, however, they are still the best marks of his seven-year MLB career.

On the defensive side of the diamond, Galvis provided Padres fans with a level of defense no one has seen by a San Diego shortstop in many, many years. His continuous highlight reel of outstanding plays provided many entertaining moments and surely helped the confidence of a number of the young rookie pitchers on the Padres staff.

Whether he comes back next year or not, he ended the 2018 season on a very high note, hitting .381 with a .409 OBP over his last 15 games (as a Padre?)

Will the Padres attempt to re-sign Galvis or look elsewhere for a stopgap option until prized prospect Fernando Tatis Jr.is ready? Hopefully, we find out sooner rather than later.