Trey Mancini is the perfect trade fit for San Diego Padres

Other Positives

Besides creating a potent platoon at first base with Hosmer, Mancini brings a lot of other positives to San Diego.

For one, he’s under team control for three more years and will not be very expensive through arbitration.

MLB Trade Rumors projects that he’ll make $5.7 million through arbitration for the 2020 season.

That would not add much to the budget for 2020, and you’d have a player that will part of this team’s rise over the next three years.

Despite his negative defensive ratings, he still posted a 3.4 WAR season in 2019 after hitting .291/.364 with 35 home runs.

We have to be careful here because that season is a bit of an outlier. But he’s also just 27-years-old (will turn 28 in March) so it’s possible he’s just now tapping into his potential.

I think it’s safer to project that he’ll settle somewhere in the .275 range as a hitter with 25-30 home runs and a .330 OBP.

That’s still very good production and there is certainly room for him to grow beyond that if he continues to progress like he did in 2019.

While his defense isn’t great in right field, it does give you a solid corner outfield bat. And again, I’m expecting him to start 30-40 games at first base where he has been a good defensive player.