San Diego Padres: Three players who need to have a good week

The San Diego Padres trimmed their roster to 61 players on Sunday. As we inch closer to the final 40-man roster, here are three players that need good weeks to avoid being cut.

Fresh off optioning or reassigning 11 players to minor league camp, the San Diego Padres will likely be making another round of cuts this coming weekend as we get down to the final 40 guys on the roster. Also labeled as “Moving Day,” the round of cuts provides clarity as to who will make up the Opening Day roster.

In regards to the last round of cuts, the second base position, in particular, saw some clarity with both Owen Miller and Esteban Quiroz being reassigned. Miller and Quiroz batted .143 and .200 in six and nine games, respectively. However, that’s time taken away from Jurickson Profar, Greg Garcia, Brian Dozier, among others who need to showcase themselves.

Dozier, especially, needs the time given the fact that he is currently not on the 40-man roster, so someone would have to be designated for assignment to make room, should he perform well enough. Right now, the natural selection would be to DFA Breyvic Valera, who was a late offseason addition but has done mainly nothing in spring thus far.

With Valera potentially on his way out, let’s look at a few other players who need to have good weeks in order not to be part of the next wave of cuts.

Abraham Almonte

One of my favorite stories on this roster, Abraham Almonte, has overcome a lot in his career. Dealing with the death of his father and struggling to cope with it, he’s been able to contribute in some fashion over the last few seasons with various teams.

He played 17 games for the Diamondbacks last year, slashing .290/.421/.548 and posted a .940 OPS over a much larger 94-game sample size with their Triple-A outfit.

I’ll cut right to it. It’s going to be extremely difficult for anyone not named Franchy Cordero and Taylor Trammell to crack the Opening Day roster. Some believe that Trammell is being rushed along, given he hasn’t played a single game at the Triple-A level yet. However, he’s performing very well in the exhibitions.

Almonte is slashing .318/.423/.682 with one double, two triples, and one home run – a grand slam – in nine spring games. With another solid week of play, there is the potential for the Padres to let him finish out the final week with the team, battling out a roster spot with Josh Naylor. If not, the Padres could use Almonte’s last option to start the year in Triple-A El Paso.

Speaking of options, expect Juan Lagares to be part of the next wave of cuts. He’s also out of minor-league options, so he’ll have to find a new home for the regular season.

Francisco Mejia

Could Francisco Mejia actually start the year in the minors? Just a couple weeks ago, he was being pegged as the everyday starter for the Padres in 2020. However, his spring has been nothing short of a disaster, as he yet to record a hit. He has also failed to throw out a runner in three attempts.

We know Austin Hedges is going to make the Opening Day roster because his defense and pitch framing is too good to leave in the minors. The former second-round pick of the 2011 draft has failed to live up to expectations offensively. Look for Luis Torrens to take advantage.

Torrens, 23, only played four games behind the plate last season for the Padres but threw out 46 percent of runners in 85 games at Double-A Amarillo. As noted several times before, the catching situation is a mess, and Luis Campusano was part of the first wave of cuts.

So, essentially, the Padres have three players left to choose from.

Mejia needs to have a strong showing over the final two weeks. Fangraphs projects him to slash .251/.299/.412 in 116 games (84 wRC+) this year, and while it’s not the desired result, I think Padres’ fans would happily take that from the catcher.

And if Hedges could somehow hit .220 to .230, I think his defensive abilities would justify him being in the lineup every day, but until then, it’s not going to happen.