San Diego Padres: Three sleeper candidates to make the roster

Major League Baseball’s roster expansion this year will provide some flexibility for the San Diego Padres. Here are three sleepers that could make the team.

Beginning this year, the traditional 25-man roster will expand, adding another player that a team can carry throughout the year. How organizations utilize the extra roster space is entirely up to them. Still, the move is certainly going to provide opportunities to fringe players that were usually cut or sent to the minors in previous years. For the San Diego Padres, the roster appears to be mostly set, outside of second base, center field, and the fifth starter position.

However, the team is likely to utilize the 26th man to provide depth at a particular position. But first, let’s look at what figures to form the first 25 guys on the roster:

Catcher: Francisco Mejia and Austin Hedges

First Base: Eric Hosmer

Second Base: Brian Dozier, Jurickson Profar, and Greg Garcia

Shortstop: Fernando Tatis Jr.

Third Base: Manny Machado

Left Field: Tommy Pham

Center Field: Trent Grisham and Franchy Cordero

Right Field: Wil Myers and Josh Naylor

Starting Rotation: Chris Paddack, Garrett Richards, Dinelson Lamet, Zach Davies, and Joey Lucchesi

Bullpen: Kirby Yates, Drew Pomeranz, Emilio Pagan, Andres Munoz, Craig Stammen, Matt Strahm, and Jose Castillo.

Now let’s look at three players that could sneak onto the roster.

Juan Lagares

Juan Lagares is a guy that could find his way onto the roster who can play all three outfield positions. Last season was a disaster for the 30-year-old, slashing .213/.279/.326 in 133 games with the New York Mets. He’s two years removed from batting .339 – albeit over a 30-game sample – and batted .250 in 94 games during the 2017 season.

He’s not a high on-base guy, but he plays excellent defense, collecting a Gold Glove Award in 2014, and could be given spot starts throughout the week when other players need days off.

If anything is going to derail his chances of making this roster, it will be because of his issues to remain healthy. Since 2014, Lagares has spent a substantial amount of time on the injured list, playing in a combined 124 games between 2017 and 2018.

He’s off to a good start thus far in spring, batting .400, including 1-2 and two RBI on Tuesday against the Oakland Athletics.

I’ll admit that Lagares is a long-shot to make the roster given how tight the 40-man roster is. However, he’s a prime candidate to take advantage of an injury or a trade during the spring.

Pierce Johnson

Pierce Johnson might be the most intriguing bullpen arm that, if the season were to start today, he wouldn’t make the team. So why is he a sleeper to make it? The former first-round pick of the 2012 MLB Draft was highly-regarded coming up through the Chicago Cubs system as a starter.

Baseball America ranked him as the 87th best prospect in baseball before the 2014 season, but he struggled to perform well in a starting rotation at the Triple-A level. Beginning in 2016, Johnson was utilized more from the bullpen but was designated for assignment by the Cubs, claimed off waivers by the San Francisco Giants, and then was out of Major League Baseball after the 2018 season.

He signed with the Hanshin Tigers of the Japanese Central League before the 2019 season and posted a 1.38 ERA in 58 appearances while striking out 91 batters in 58.2 innings (.801 WHIP). He’s hoping for similar results as former Padres prospect Miles Mikolas and Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong.

Johnson appears to have figured out what works best for him during his time over in Japan. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he spent more time attacking the zone rather than nibbling, which led to a majority of his issues.

Thus far, Johnson has appeared in two games in Spring Training, tossed 2.0 innings while striking out three batters and allowing a .143 average.