Faux Winter Meetings: Padres add 3 veterans for bench and rotation depth

As FanSided’s Faux Winter Meetings come to an end, the San Diego Padres were able to land three veterans for depth on the bench and in the starting rotation.

The free agent market in our Faux Winter Meetings was vastly different than what we’ve seen in real life the past couple of offseasons as the San Diego Padres had trouble landing any of the available free agents.

Finally, late in our week-long simulation, I was able to grab three veteran players to add some depth and experience to the team.

After trading away Greg Garcia, I had to find a back-up infielder and I was able to grab Adeiny Hechavarria for one year and $2 million.

I admit I’m a bit biased here because I covered the Atlanta Braves this past season and Hechavarria was outstanding for them.

Hechavarria is an elite defender and can play third, short, and second base. His only issue has been with the bat where he’s a career .240-.250 hitter.

This signing is good for two reasons. It helps push Luis Urias at second base, and he can help Fernando Tatis Jr. become an elite defender at shortstop.

Not that Tatis is a bad defender by any means, but it wouldn’t hurt to have somebody with the experience and reputation of Hechavarria guiding him.

The other veteran I was able to bring on board was outfielder Adam Jones.

I was actually a bit surprised I was able to get Jones so easily. Maybe because it was late in our simulation and everyone was tapped out, but I love having Jones coming off the bench for the Padres.

His resume speaks for itself, and like Hechavarria, Jones could be a great mentor for the young guys.

In this simulation, the Padres were able to get Adam on a one-year, $2 million deal.

And the final signing that I was able to make for the Padres was signing Michael Pineda to a 2-year, $12 million deal.

Again, I was very surprised I didn’t get any resistance for Pineda.

I get that he’s going to miss the first 39 games of 2020 after being suspended for 60 games, but he’s still a really good pitcher.

In 2015 and 2016 with the Yankees he was a 3-plus WAR pitcher, and he was on track to reach that total again with the Twins in 2019 before the suspension.

This past season he posted a 4.01 ERA in 146 innings pitched with a K/9 of 8.63 and an xFIP of 4.30. But he was really good after mid-May with a 3.19 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 92 innings pitched.

He could be a steady force in the middle of the Padres rotation for the next couple of seasons.

That puts a wrap on our FanSided Faux Winter Meetings. I’ll put together a bigger article on Sunday reviewing the whole process and how it all went down. Let me know your thoughts on these three free agents signings in the comments below.