San Diego Padres Winter Update From Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Mexico
This offseason, a number of San Diego Padres prospects are traveling across Central and South America to participate in various offseason leagues. As we do every Sunday, we’ve compiled how each player is performing in one convenient post.
For many San Diego Padres prospects, the offseason doesn’t mean a halt to their extreme grind as they attempt to become major league baseball players, but it does provide a chance to play in front of their hometown friends and family. Currently, leagues are underway in Venezuela, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, with more beginning in Puerto Rico and Australia in the coming weeks.
As we do every Sunday, let’s go through each on-going league and take a quick look at how each and every Padres prospect is performing. Let’s start with looking at a few pitchers who made the short trip to Mexico.
San Diego Padres offseason: Liga Mexicana del Pacifico
Many of the big name prospects are currently in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, however, there a small handful of pitchers looking for successful offseasons to help generate a rebound in 2019. This might be the last chance Chris Huffman has with the Padres, unfortunately, his time in Mexico hasn’t been extremely positive.
Through his first three starts, Huffman is 0-2 with a 4.32 ERA. In 16.2 innings of work he has given up eight runs on 14 hits and has posted an 8/7 K/BB ratio.
Joining Huffman in Mexico is Adrian Martinez and Gerardo Reyes. Martinez seems to be struggling to get hitters out while Reyes has been dominant from the jump.
- Reyes: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
- Martinez: 6.2 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
On the next slide, we look at high-profile prospects such as Jeisson Rosario, Pedro Avila, plus many more as they work on their craft in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
Pedro Avila rolls in second start of the offseason.
In his second start in Venezuela, Pedro Avila continued to do exactly what he needs to do this offseason, limit walks. After his six innings of shutout baseball, Avila now has 10 innings of shutout ball under his belt, with five hits allowed, one walk, and 10 strikeouts.
He isn’t the only one finding success in Venezuela. The future of Edward Olivares may be up in the air, however, the young outfielder is doing all he can to showcase his talents to the organization. In 10 games, Olivares is hitting .263 with two home runs, three stolen bases, and a .349 OBP. He has at least one hit in all but two games.
Fellow top prospect Gabriel Arias also has a hit in every game but two, but has played sparingly since our update last week. Arias is now hitting .273 with a .333 OBP. All nine of his hits have been singles. Although it’s a very small sample size, Arias and his strikeouts continue to be a bit of problem, striking out eight times already in 33 at-bats.
Two fellow Padres prospects joined Avila, Olivares, and Arias back home, but have played sparingly or not at all.
- Reinaldo Ilarraza: 4/9, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 SB
- Blinger Perez: Has not played.
Updates from the Dominican Republic.
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Honestly, there isn’t too much to report since our update last Sunday. Fernando Tatis Jr.has yet to make his much-anticipated debut but that is coming, very soon. Tatis, Franmil Reyes, Franchy Cordero, and Francisco Mejia are all set to join their respective teams in the next few days. Reyes is expected to begin playing as early as Tuesday or Wednesday for the Leones del Escogido.
As for the rest of the crew, below are their performance numbers as of October 28th.
- Eric Yardley: 5.2 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1.59 ERA
- Diego Goris: .333 avg (6-18), 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 SB
- Webster Rivas: 0-2, two strikeouts
- Esteury Ruiz: .400 avg (4-10), two stolen bases
- Jeisson Rosario: 0-3, one strikeout
The Australian and Puerto Rican leagues will celebrate Opening Day on November 15th.