San Diego Padres: State of the franchise, shortstop

Owen Miller (ETA: 2020)

Drafted in the third round of the 2018 MLB Draft, Owen Miller comes from a small school baseball program in Illinois State. He’s quickly moved up the farm system and spent all of last season at Double-A Amarillo, posting a .290/.355/.430 line with 13 home runs and 68 RBI. He’s not really a threat to steal any bases, but he does take a fair amount of walks.

His splits in 2019 were interesting in that he hit for average better off lefties – .347 versus .276 – but he crushed right-handed pitching. Miller tallied 10 of his 13 home runs and 48 of his 68 RBI against righties. He primarily batted fourth for the Sod Poodles, posting a .773 OPS in 80 games; however, in a 32-game sample size, Miller posted an. 885 OPS batting third.

Does he have a fit on the roster? I can say for sure that Miller is not going to be playing shortstop at the big league level, at least for the Padres anyway. Second base is wide open, and Miller has spent a considerable amount of time there as well. In 48 career games at the position, he’s recorded a .980 fielding percentage and committed just four errors.

If he hits well enough at Triple-A and the trio at second base struggles, look for Miller to be one of the first called up.