San Diego Padres outfield complicated with Wil Myers move

On Saturday, Wil Myers and the San Diego Padres have agreed to have him focus solely on the outfield for the upcoming 2019 season. This complicates things a bit.

Last year Wil Myers played left field, right field, and the last month of the season at third base for the San Diego Padres because Andy Green wanted to get Franmil Reyes and Myers at-bats.

Myers had a decent year with a .253 batting average and 11 home runs, but he spent a good portion of the year on the disabled list with nerve irritation in his right arm at the beginning of April, an oblique strain at the end of April, and a left foot contusion in August.

If Wil Myers is going to play every day (assuming he stays healthy) in the outfield, this raises some questions about the outfield going forward.

Right now going into spring training, the Padres have six outfielders (seven if you want to include Alex Dickerson) that include Myers, Franmil Reyes, Manuel Margot, Hunter Renfroe, Franchy Cordero, and Travis Jankowski.

That total will go down to probably four or five based off of their performances in Peoria, so we need to find places for the two or three that won’t be with the big league club.

The first option would be to find a trade partner, which would not be very difficult. The tricky part is to not trade an outfielder just to trade him, but to have it benefit you at the big league level.

The Padres have been linked to guys like Toronto’s Marcus Stroman, Cleveland’s Corey Kluber, Yankees’ Sonny Gray, and Miami’s J.T. Realmuto. In order to get one of them, I am sure A.J. Preller would be more than happy to trade one or possibly two outfielders to that respective club to keep the talented minor league arms that San Diego had like Logan Allen and Michael Baez.

The two choices that Preller would be willing to trade would be Manuel Margot and Hunter Renfroe.

Now, the only reason I bring up Margot is that he has not been consistent at the plate and the San Diego Padres would have three options still remaining at center field including Cordero, Jankowski, and then minor leaguer Buddy Reed (in two years).

If I were Preller, Renfroe would be the one to go because he would fit perfectly into a team like Miami. The Marlins are a young team and need a player like Renfroe who has experience at the big league level and has huge power. He could possibly become the face of their franchise (assuming Realmuto is the one being traded to the San Diego Padres).

The second option would be to send them to the minor leagues, and bring up the hot bat and send down the cold one like they tried last year. This didn’t work out very well because of the frequent injuries in the outfield like Myers and Cordero.

The Wil Myers move to the outfield will not make things any easier for the front office to decide who should go and who should stay, but it just may bring a superstar to America’s Finest City.