San Diego Padres: Who’s the odd man out of the outfield picture?

The San Diego Padres have created a ton of depth in the outfield, but there are only so many positions to go around. Who will be the odd man out?

One of the biggest tasks for San Diego Padres GM A.J. Preller this offseason is trying to figure out the situation in the outfield.

Their best outfielder, based on WAR, from 2019 was Hunter Renfroe with a WAR of 1.9. He’s since been traded this offseason, which leaves Manuel Margot as the top returning outfielder after posting a WAR of 1.6 last season.

To say that the San Diego outfield was a mess in 2019 would be putting it lightly.

And the one player out there who seemed to have figured everything out in Franmil Reyes they traded in the middle of the season. But I can understand that move because Reyes is not a great defender and is perfect for the DH in the American League.

Padres outfielders combined for 4.4 WAR last year, which ranked 20th in all of baseball. They hit a combined .236/.308/.434.

However, they were 10th among team outfields with 98 home runs, but they were also 28th in strikeout percentage striking out almost 28 percent of the time.

So Preller has been on a mission this offseason to shake things up out there, but it’s now created an area where there is seemingly too many bodies for so few spots.

Unless other moves are made this offseason, and I suspect there will be, we could see six-to-eight players fighting for possibly five roster spots in Spring Training.