Padres’ Tommy Pham ranked fourth-best LF in baseball

The Athletic recently ranked the Padres’ Tommy Pham as the fourth-best left-fielder in the game.

Jim Bowden of The Athletic has been ranking the top ten players by position. We saw both Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. ranked inside the top five at their respective positions, and now the Padres have another. Bowden recently put Tommy Pham as the fourth-best left fielder in baseball.

Pham, 32, was acquired during the offseason from the Tampa Bay Rays, a deal that also included infielder Jake Cronenworth. Pham came up through the Cardinals farm system and experienced a breakout year in 2017, while consistently showing the ability to get on base. That will be key for a Padres that was terrible in the strikeout department last year.

Bowden has Juan Soto, Michael Brantley, and Austin Meadows ahead of Pham on his list, with the other three considered to be still trending upward. Pham is listed as trending sideways, noting the concerns about his elbow.

An interesting tidbit from this one is that he identifies Pham as a potential DH candidate if the 2020 season were to happen with the position implemented for National League teams. Pham is one guy who has benefited the most from this baseball hiatus, so, hopefully, it’s a non-issue for him in left field.

The Padres have two other guys in Wil Myers and Josh Naylor, who would likely be better served as the DH. That said, Pham has a career slash line of .277/.373/.472 and should steer the Padres in a positive direction towards getting on base more in 2020.