Padres sign former Reds hard-contact bat with real matchup value

The Padres didn’t go shopping for a star here. But they did find a problem-solver. It’s a move that looks boring until you look closely at the matchup edges and realize San Diego just bought itself a very specific kind of leverage.

Per Jon Heyman, the Padres have an agreement with free agent corner infielder/outfielder Miguel Andújar, and Jeff Passan reports it’s a one-year, $4 million deal. 

Padres’ Miguel Andújar signing feels like a calculated bet on matchup chaos

Andújar is coming off a legitimately loud 2025: .318/.352/.470 in 94 games split between Oakland and Cincinnati, and he absolutely cooked after the deadline trade — hitting .359 in 34 games with the Reds. 

Here’s the catch — and it’s the same catch teams have danced around for years: the glove isn’t great. Andújar’s defensive value has never matched the bat, and last season’s Outs Above Average numbers paint the same story: big arm, very limited range, and a profile that makes the most sense when you’re not asking him to be your nightly solution in the field.

But that’s exactly why this signing actually fits the current Padres better than it fits, say, a team trying to get cute. San Diego doesn’t need him to be a two-way player. They need him to be a weapon in the right spots: a right-handed hitter who can punish lefties, lengthen the lineup on days the matchups are ugly, and give Craig Stammen a real pinch-hit threat.

At $4 million, this is also classic Padres roster economics in 2026. They bought a skill, not a résumé. If Andújar is even close to last year’s contact quality, he’s the kind of bat that can steal you a couple wins that keep you afloat throughout the season.

It’s not flashy. It’s functional. And for a Padres team that’s tired of bleeding offense from the bottom third of the lineup, functional is starting to look pretty smart.