Padres: The case for and against trading Luis Urias this offseason

PHILADELPHIA, PA – AUGUST 18: Luis Urias #9 of the San Diego Padres has his helmet removed by Manny Machado #13 after hitting a two-run home run during the fourth inning of a game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on August 18, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

Reasons to keep him

I kind of touched on it in the last slide, but I think Urias can still be a very solid Major League player.

To me, his floor is a .260 hitter who hits 5-10 home runs a year and steals 10-20 bases with an OBP around .325.

But his ceiling could be something like a .300 hitter who hits 15-20 home runs a year, steals 20-30 bases, and has an OBP of .360.

Most likely he settles somewhere in between those two projections, and even that is still a very good player and one I think the Padres would love hitting near the bottom of their lineup.

And another reason to keep him is because he started to show he can reach that ceiling at the end of 2019.

In August he hit .238 with a .330 OBP and a home run, but then in September when he played pretty much every day and hit towards the bottom of the lineup, he hit .300 with a .371 OBP and 2 home runs.

Hopefully Urias has figured some things out at the big league level and he could be in for a breakout season in 2020.

Again, I can see both sides of the story here. And either way, it puts the Padres in a good position.

They can trade Urias for an impact player, or they keep him and he shows he’s the second baseman of the future.

What do you want to see the Padres do with Urias this offseason? Let us know in the comments section below.

Reasons to keep him

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