What could Padres latest roster moves mean for this offseason

The San Diego Padres made some minor roster moves, so we look at what it could mean for the upcoming offseason.

Ahead of the deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft, the San Diego Padres made a couple of interesting roster decisions.

On Wednesday the Padres added Jorge Ona to the 40-man roster and designated Nick Martini for assignment.

Their 40-man roster remains full, which means any addition they make this offseason they’ll have to remove someone from the 40-man roster to make room.

Unless, of course, they make a trade and clear some of these names off the 40-man roster.

Removing Martini doesn’t come as much of a surprise as he was not to be in the future plans.

However, I think this does signal — officially — that A.J. Preller is actively looking for a left-handed bat in the outfield. But that was pretty much a given anyway.

What did come as a little of a surprise was that they added Ona to the roster over some better thought of prospects like Esteury Ruiz and Buddy Reed who both rank in the top 25 of the Padres system by MLB.com.

But there is still a lot of upside for the 22-year-old Ona who the Padres believe could still be a power bat in the corner outfield.

He only played 25 games in Double-A this past season but hit .348 with 5 home runs and a .417 OBP.

Apparently that was enough to show the front office what he is capable of at the big league level.

It will be interesting to see what Ona does in 2020. If he can stay healthy and continue to put up numbers like that, he could be up really soon with San Diego.

Or at the very least, he could become an interesting trade piece.

Ruiz has yet to make it past High-A and hit just .239 there this past season in 98 games with 6 home runs and 101 strikeouts to just 26 walks.

You have to figure Ruiz is safe from getting selected in the upcoming Rule 5 Draft.

Buddy Reed hit 14 home runs and stole 23 bases at Double-A this past season, and the former second-round pick could be in jeopardy of getting snatched up.

At the same time, he hit just .228 in 381 at-bats with 126 strikeouts and an OPS of .698.

I think Michael Gettys could actually get selected in the Rule 5 Draft. Funny enough, I just had someone as for him in a trade in our FanSided Faux Winter Meetings.

The 24-year-old outfielder hit .256 at Triple-A in 2019 with 31 home runs and 91 RBI. But has a career OBP of just .316 in the minors and has struck out at least 160 times in each of the past three seasons — talk about all or nothing.

Somebody should take a chance on Trevor MeGill. He had a K/9 of 12.7 this past season in 50.1 Triple-A innings. I’m sure somebody will want to take a shot at that stuff in their bullpen.

Dauris Valdez had a 4.23 ERA in 55.1 innings in Double-A this past season with a K/9 of 11.1. He’s probably safe.

Remember, teams who select a player in the Rule 5 Draft have to keep that player on their roster all season or else forfiet him back to their former team.

The 2019 Rule 5 Draft will take place on the last day of the Winter Meetings scheduled for December 12.