Draft Overview of the Preller Regime

The draft is only hours away, so here is a draft overview of the San Diego Padres during the A.J. Preller regime. Enjoy.

The 2015 draft was the first after A.J. Preller was installed as the San Diego Padres General Manager.

That was the same year Mark Conner took over as the Scouting Director. With the 2018 draft taking place today, it is important to check on their past drafts.

Here’s a look at each class:

2015

RHP: 18
LHP: 5
C: 4
INF: 6
OF: 6

HS: 10
JC: 4
SO:1
JR: 15
SR: 7
5S: 2

*From mlb.com draft tracker

The Padres were without a first round pick in the 2015 draft. They forfeited the 13th overall pick when they signed James Shields in the offseason. They also traded a competitive balance pick, 41st overall, to the Atlanta Braves in the Craig Kimbrel deal. The Braves used that pick to draft third baseman Austin Riley, who is now one of the top prospects in all of baseball. The Padres spent six of their first 10 picks on pitchers.

With their first pick coming in the 2nd round at number 51, the Padres took RHP Austin Smith. He has largely struggled so far in his minor league career and has been moved to bullpen. He is currently pitching in High-A Lake Elsinore.

The Padres nabbed RHP Jacob Nix with their 3rd pick. He has overcome an early season injury to make his first appearance in 2018 with Double-A San Antonio. He went four innings giving up two hits and striking out two.

Catcher Austin Allen, currently Nix’s teammate with the Missions, has been a huge part of their offense so far. He was their 4th round pick in 2015 and the organization believes in his bat. They think his bat will play at any position but they’re hopeful he can stick at catcher.

The later rounds of the draft proved fruitful for the Padres as they were able to get some productive minor leaguers throughout the draft. They drafted LHP Jerry Keel in the 9th round and grabbed RHP Brett Kennedy in the 11th. Kyle Overstreet was drafted as a catcher but has played some 1B and 3B, he was drafted in the 14th. Keel and Overstreet are teammates in Double-A while Kennedy has flown through the system. He started 2018 pitching in Triple-A El Paso.

In round 17, 6-foot-7 RHP Trey Wingenter was available for the Padres. He battled for a bullpen spot with the big-league club this spring. Phil Maton has been pitching in the Padres bullpen since he was called up early in the 2017 season. Maton was taken in the 20th round.

3B Ty France has made his way up to San Antonio along with seemingly every other 2015 draft pick. The San Diego State product was taken in the 34th round and has career OBP of .383.

2016
RHP: 16
LHP: 8
C: 2
INF: 10
OF: 7

HS: 16
JC: 5
SO:1
JR: 13
SR: 8
5S: 0

*From mlb.com draft tracker

With 6 picks in the top 85 overall, this was a very important draft for the Padres. They had 3 picks in the first round alone. They received two compensatory picks for losing Ian Kennedy and Justin Upton to free agency and received one competitive balance pick. So far, it looks like they’ve hit a lot more than they’ve missed with two picks already pitching in the Padres big league rotation. The Padres went pitcher-heavy early taking 10 pitchers in their first 12 picks, including eight in a row at one point.

With the 8th overall pick they took RHP Cal Quantrill. While he hasn’t been as dominant as you’d expect an 8th overall pick to be, he has shown flashes of what he could be. Currently pitching in AA, Quantrill had what was probably his best game in pro-ball last night. He threw seven innings of zero-run ball, he gave up 3 hits while striking out 10.

To the surprise of some analysts, the Padres took Hudson Potts with their 2nd pick at 24th overall. Overshadowed by Fernando Tatis in Fort Wayne, Potts had a 2nd half breakout of his own in 2017. He hit eight of his 20 home runs in August and seems to have carried that success over to 2018 as he currently has nine home runs.

Current Padres Starting Pitcher, Eric Lauer, was taken with the very next pick in the draft. He has taken some lumps in the early part of his major league career but has also been dominant at times. He shut out the Dodgers in six innings while striking out five on May 6th. After a couple of rough starts, he bounced back against the Nationals giving up one run over six innings on May 22nd. In his most recent start, Lauer went five innings giving up one run to the Reds.

Buddy Reed was taken with the Padres 2nd round pick. After mostly struggling in his first two seasons, he has been tearing up High-A Lake Elsinore early in 2018. In 211 plate appearances, Reed is batting .342/.381/.582 with nine home runs and 24 stolen bases.

The next two Padres picks were high school pitchers, RHP Reggie Lawson and LHP Mason Thompson. Lawson was taken with the competitive balance pick at 71st overall. He struggled in Fort Wayne in 2017, pitching to 5.30 ERA over 73 innings. 2018 has been a different story though as he currently owns a 2.74 ERA over 46 innings pitching in Lake Elsinore. Thompson hasn’t been able to stay on the mound much, throwing only 77.1 innings in pro-ball. Currently pitching in Fort Wayne, he owns a 5.87 ERA in 38.1 innings.

LHP Joey Lucchesi was the Padres 4th round pick. Lucchesi started the year in the Padres rotation when Dinelson Lamet was lost for the season due to injury. Lucchesi has joined Lamet on the DL but pitched well over his first nine starts. He owns a 3.23 ERA in 47.1 innings while striking out 9.1/9.

*Padres took Ryan Rolison with their 37th round pick in 2016. He’s one of the top college pitching prospects in this year’s draft.

2017

RHP: 12
LHP: 8
C: 5
INF: 8
OF: 8

HS: 16
JC: 5
SO: 0
JR: 10
SR: 9
5S: 1

*From mlb.com draft tracker

The Padres first six picks in the 2017 draft were high schoolers. Four of the those were position players, including two catchers. After one year, it’s still early to be looking at these picks with so many of them being high schoolers.

After being drafted with the 3rd overall pick, Mackenzie Gore dominated the Arizona Rookie League. He struck out 34 batters in 21.1 innings only giving up 14 hits. Pitching in Fort Wayne, Gore has only thrown eight innings in three starts so far in 2018. He has been dealing with a blister issue that has sidelined him for the time being.

2nd round pick Luis Campusano is off to a fast start as a 19-year old in Low-A. He hasn’t hit for much power yet, but he is sporting a .343 OBP. He has walked 12 times while striking out in 19 of his 140 plate appearances. The Padres competitive balance pick, Blake Hunt, has yet to appear in a game in 2018 but had a .315 OBP and .405 slugging percentage with the Padres Arizona League teams in 2017.

CF Mason House was taken in the 3rd round and hasn’t appeared in a game in 2018. In 2017 he appeared in 39 games receiving 181 plate appearances in the Arizona League, slashing .293/.354/.463. 4th round pick Sam Keating and 5th round pick Jonny Homza have also been held out of game action so far in 2018. Keating pitched to a 6.87 ERA over 18.1 innings in the AZL in 2017. Homza played 4 positions (C, SS, 3B,2B) in the AZL last year. He struggled with the bat slashing .228/.304/.299 in 208 plate appearances.

One of the more underrated players to come out this draft is LHP Nick Margevicius. He was the Padres 7th round pick and is currently pitching in Fort Wayne. He owns a 2.93 ERA over 46 innings and has struck out 59 batters. In his short amount of time in pro-ball he has shown a knack for striking people out.

Kenny Kirkpatrick

I’ve been a Padres fan for most of my life. I am currently a Baseball Video Scout Associate at Sports Info Solutions. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Colorado State University in December of 2016. My grandfather, Ed Kirkpatrick, played Major League Baseball in the 60’s and 70’s. He played for several teams including the Angels, Royals, Brewers, Pirates, and Rangers.