Padres may be turning Jake Cronenworth into their ultimate safety valve

The subject of many rumors this offseason, the San Diego Padres ultimately held onto infielder Jake Cronenworth, valuing his versatility and bat enough to avoid the temptation of a cost-cutting trade.

That decision will benefit the team for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the 32-year-old Cronenworth may be the most viable backup plan at shortstop should something happen to Xander Bogaerts.

"Jake [Cronenworth] is definitely one of them," manager Craig Stammen said during a media scrum at spring camp when asked about which players would follow Bogaerts on the depth chart. "We put him over there last season — I don't know what the decision-making was, I wasn't part of that — but then he came over and made some great plays [at shortstop] in Colorado, if I remember right. And then we were kinda like, 'Alright, Jake can play shortstop.'"

For what it's worth, Stammen also name-dropped Sung-mun Song and Mason McCoy as potential options to fill in for Bogaerts in case of injury or rest, though he wouldn't go so far as to name a permanent "backup" shortstop. By all accounts, though, Cronenworth might be the top name in consideration.

Jake Cronenworth's versatility is a boon for inflexible Padres

After a relatively quiet offseason on the position player front, A.J. Preller and the front office have made a swath of signings in recent days, including Nick Castellanos, Miguel Andujar, and Ty France. That figures to lead to a complicated competition for the final bench spots on the Opening Day roster, which is made only more perplexing by the fact that each of those three players can exclusively play the infield or outfield corners (maybe you could stretch France to second base, but his value comes from a superlative glove at first).

While Sung-mun Song figures to answer a lot of those flexibility concerns, he's never played in Major League Baseball before. It could take him some time to adjust to the higher level of pitching here than in the KBO, and there's no guarantee that his glove will translate to every spot on the diamond.

Hence why it's so important that Cronenworth maintains his ability to play on the other side of the second base bag. He's accumulated 507 2/3 innings at shortstop in his career — though none of those came between 2023-24, and he only get 79 frames worth of reps last year. The results (3 Outs Above Average, 1 Defensive Run Saved) were positive, which will hopefully carry over into a bigger sample going forward.

The plan remains that Bogaerts will stay healthy and continues to evolve with the glove after the best defensive campaign of his career in 2025. But failing that, the Padres' hopes for a productive and reliable shortstop may fall squarely on Cronenworth's shoulders.