Padres drop latest round of roster cuts to provide 2024 Opening Day roster clarity

While many teams across the league have rosters that are pretty well set and are just preparing for the 2024 season in camp, spring training has brought a series of very real roster competitions for the San Diego Padres. With so many key players departing this offseason, the Padres are having to sort through a number of internal options to fill those vacant roster spots.

One way to get a sense of the Padres' thinking in these competitions is to see which players get sent back over to minor league camp early on in spring training. Most of the minor league guys that get brought into big league camp had next to no chance of making the big league roster in spring training, but there are some that had outside chances. Who stays and who goes can provide a lot of clarity for the Padres' approach.

On Sunday, the Padres made a wave of spring training roster cuts as expected, and they included several names that could have figured into their early 2024 plans.

Padres Spring Training Update: San Diego trims 11 players from spring training camp roster

The biggest names the Padres sent back to minor league camp were catcher Ethan Salas, Jairo Iriarte, and Robby Snelling. While Salas is the Padres' best prospect, he was always very unlikely to make the big league roster right out of camp this year given the presence of Luis Campusano. Salas also has a lack of experience in the minors, but don't worry, he will be up in the big leagues soon enough.

However, both Snelling and Iriarte seemed to have a real chance at a rotation spot, and the move to send them to minor league camp seemingly bolsters the campaign for the newly acquired Drew Thorpe to get an Opening Day spot.

There's also the chance the Padres go out an add a relatively cheap veteran like Michael Lorenzen before the start of the 2024 season. Notably, both Jackson Merrill and Graham Pauley remain in camp, so both clearly still have a chance of making the big league roster in the outfield.

Another note about the Padres' roster cuts is that Jay Groome was among them, and he's out of minor league options. It's unclear if he will be brought back on a minor league deal while he recovers from a quad injury or if he will pursue opportunities elsewhere, but all of this sums up the state of the Padres right now.

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