Clayton Richard DFA’d After Kinsler signing
Credit: USA Today Sports
The San Diego Padres have formally announced the signing of Ian Kinsler to a two-year, $8MM deal.
With no space on the 40-man roster, they also announced that Clayton Richard has been designated for assignment.
Richard signed a two-year, $6MM deal last offseason after pitching 197.1 innings of 4.79 ERA ball in 2017.
That season also so an uptick in his strikeout rate (6.9) and a drop in his walk rate (2.7) while posting a 59.2% ground ball rate. While it was still a dropoff from 2016, these numbers were still good for the then 33-year-old Richards.
What the Padres got in 2018 out of Richard was…less than desirable. His ERA spiked to 5.33, his strikeout and walk rates (6.13 and 3.40, respectively) took a small hit, while his groundball rate continued to drop. It also didn’t help that he allowed more flyballs (21%) and hard-contact hits (40.5%) then the season before.
Still, his home run rate was still quite low while advanced metrics like FIP (4.68), xFIP (4.24) and SIERRA (4.51) indicated that he was slightly better than his ERA suggested. His veteran presence was also much appreciated in a locker room filled with youngsters and rookies as he served as a role model/mentor for young pitchers like Joey Lucchesi and Eric Lauer.
The Padres made Ian Kinsler’s signing official. In the corresponding move, they DFA’d Clayton Richard.
— Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) December 20, 2018
However, the 35-year-old had left knee surgery to alleviate him from pain in his left knee that he had apparently been suffering from since early in the season and, while he isn’t expected to miss time, it is highly questionable if he will be able to bounce back from such a procedure at his age. Plus, with the Padres looking to give more innings to younger pitchers, Richard would just be taking innings away from them.
The Padres are still on the hook for the $3MM left on his contract unless Richard is traded or claimed on waivers, which is highly unlikely. San Diego will most likely be releasing the southpaw from his duties and eat the $3MM commitment. If Richard is picked up by a different team in the 10-day period, San Diego will only have to pay for the pro-rated portion of that $555K for any time Richard spends at the big league level.
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A lot of us thought Pirela would be released after Kinsler was signed. This tells me Pirela is the 3B until they get a third baseman either by trade or signing someone. Once this happens, then I’d have to believe that Pirela would be released.
For now, with Richards gone, they committed to youth at SP. Sure we might see a trade or a FA, but the minors are bulging with guys who can pitch. At some point, you have to throw them out there I guess.
I’m with you Greg. Let the young guns get some innings. If you need a “veteran” pitcher we have Mitchell, Perdomo, and Richard, if he passes through waivers. If we let the young guys develop together, we will have an awesome young starting 4 or 5 in a couple of years.
I know Richard is not part of the future, but I do not understand the rush to cut him. They could have waited until March to see if he recovered from surgery, and if some team wanted him in trade. This way we get nothing. Makes no sense.
Especially since Pirela is still with the team. This is now the 3rd time where a better player has been released and Pirela kept (Spangenberg, Asuaje, and now Richard).
Just what in the Sam Hill is going on here?
To answer your question, when they sign Sam Hill then perhaps they will cut Pirela.
Nice one. But hey, he probably has better range than Pirela.
Add him to the list of players the Padres are paying to NOT play for the Padres, and to also likely pay to play AGAINST the Padres.
Can EVT do an article on this topic? It could include those likely to be on the list in the future, like Myers, Hosmer, Kinsler, etc.
At least the Padres (i.e. Preller) lead the league in one category!
EVT, or other Padres websites, should have some kind of graph, like people use to measure their debt, and show how close they are to being out of debt (e.g. $5,000 more and we are out of debt). This could show the names of the players, and the amount the Padres are paying them, and the years/amount left. This should also all be tied to the GM who decided to pay players to play against the Padres. The Padres will be paying off Preller’s debt for years to come, particularly when the pay someone to take Hosmer, or merely cut him in a few years. Are they still paying Kemp? How much are they paying Jedd? I believe Shields is off of the books.
May we all get for Christmas a boss who will pay us huge sums of money to give our boss’s money to his competition, and the freedom to invest his money in increasingly worse investments that encumber the overall goal, that will, in a matter of time, result in paying even more money to the competition.
Currently, the Padres are paying Hector Olivera $7,500,000, Phil Hughes $7,250,000 and Jedd Gyroko $5 million. We are, however, still paying for Shields with $2 million for him. Hughes, Gyroko and Shields will be off the books in 2020.
Wow, thanks. Is the 2 mil for Shields a buyout?
I’m pretty sure that the $2 mil is a buyout. The White Sox declined his 16 million dollar option in late October, so who knows what we would’ve been paying him if the Sox accepted the option.