Padres Flip #13 Prospect SP De Los Santos for SS Freddy Galvis
A.J. Preller connected with Matt Klentak (Philadelphia Phillies GM) Friday morning, flipping the number 13 prospect in the Padres organization for 28-year-old shortstop Freddy Galvis.
Enyel De Los Santos, starting pitching prospect, came to the Padres in November of 2015 when the team traded reliever Joaquin Benoit for De Los Santos. Since then, he has worked his way up to Double-A San Antonio and falling in line as one of the possible members of the wave of talent to come next season.
Last season in San Antonio, De Los Santos held a 3.70 ERA over 150.0 innings pitched. In 26 appearances, 24 starts, he struck out an impressive 138 batters while walking 48.
Freddy Galvis has been in the league since debuting at 22 in 2012. He has reps at every position on the field, except first base, however he has the most reps at shortstop (485 games started at SS, 71 at 2B, 19 at 3B, 24 in OF). He holds a career 3.0 WAR and worked a 1.3 WAR last season.
Galvis has a career .984 fielding-percentage at shortstop, but upped his career average last season while earning a .989 fielding-percentage last season with 404 assists, 226 putouts, seven errors, and 94 double plays turned in 637 chances.
He slashed .255/.309/.382 with 12 homers, 29 doubles, 45 walks (career high) and 61 RBI (2nd-most in career, 67 in 2016) in 608 at-bats last season.
To put his last seasons numbers into perspective, Galvis would have been in the top-5 in batting average and walks and he would have tied Wil Myers for first with doubles on the Padres. Despite not being much of a slugger, his .309 on-base percentage would have ranked higher than any player to fill in at shortstop for the Padres last season.
Not only is the five-year veteran a good addition on the field, but Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union Tribune reports that the bi-lingual veteran emerged as the leader in the inexperienced Phillies clubhouse. A strong, on-the-field leader is something that was lacking among the young Padres.
It doesn’t make much sense why Preller would flip such a highly-rated starting pitcher on the verge of making his MLB debut for and veteran shortstop. One way to look at it is that Preller and company have a great deal of confidence in young pitchers working their way up the Friars system. Also, that fans and management together, grew weary of the huge hanging question mark at shortstop every year and Galvis is just the short-term bridge until Fernando Tatis Jr. is ready for the show.
With 14 prospects (now 13 with the loss of Enyel de los Santos) in the Padres Top 30 that are pitchers, it may seem like they can afford to flip a SP prospect for a solution at an empty position. Especially when the role is being filled by someone who has been deemed a leader in a young clubhouse already.
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Hard to believe any Padres fan would object to bringing in a decent shortstop after the garbage we’ve seen over the past five years. This is a big upgrade, and we only had to part with one pitcher in a pitching-rich system.
Amen Josh, amen.
Of course no one would object to bringing in a solid shortstop (although Galvis is iffy in that regard), it is about giving up far too much for so little (eg 1 year).
Galvis is a terrific defensive shortstop. Stating otherwise is uninformed.
Perhaps “uninformed” is implying or declaring that someone has said something about his defense, when they did not, and then implying or declaring the other person “uninformed”!
C’mon Tommy T.! Look at all that A.J. has done recovering from certain disaster with the 2015 signings to instead put the Padres in a position where they are going to be perennial contenders for the next 5 to 10 years! The Galvis trade is a ine year stopgap with a gold glove caliber S.S.! Probably partially a show of good faith to Eric Hosmer. And if you think that signing Hosmer is a bad idea, regardless of his agent, well then I’m afraid you don’t follow the MLB very closely. Hosmer is the one blue-chip free agent that I’d break the bank for any day!!!
Galvis is not horrible, but he has virtually ZERO value to the Padres. Therefore, Preller gave up something of value for something with ZERO value. It doesn’t make sense, neither does the Headley trade!!!!???!!? If Galvis had 3 or 4 years left, maybe… If the Padres were close to competing for the postseason, maybe… But they are NOT! So, another trade where Preller got taken to the cleaners. Now he wants to sign Hosmer?!?! Now he can’t give Headley away?!?!? Think about it, what team would take Headley off the Padres hands and give nothing in return? None! That is how bad, no, terrible that trade was.
You do realize that Opening Day is not tomorrow right? Preller and Co. have A LOT of time to deal Headley or Solarte or Spangenberg.
“You do realize that Opening Day is not tomorrow right?” Um, what? Did anyone say anything about this? You missed the point about this is a horrible trade, and about being stuck with the little value of Headley (and having a hard time getting any value in return, let alone the likelihood of having to pay to have someone take him of the Padres’ hands!) This is likely another player the Padres are going to have to pay some/most/all of his salary to play for another team (Shields, Kemp, JG). Just dealing them away is not a “success,” but a failure if/when you have to pay them. In this case AJ willingly took on a bad contract that no one else would.
Lots of off-season to go Tommy. Galvis is an excellent SS and the same age as Hosmer (hmm). AJ will likely do his best to extend Galvis so as not to rush Tatis Jr & have a reliable SS with trade value whenever Tatis EARNS his job on the MLB club. Be mindful of the culture they are looking to create where players have to compete within the organization to earn their promotions. Not rushing 18 year old prospects to the big leagues because nobody’s blocking them. Just a thought …
From the looks of the last two trades it looks like Preller reverted to his horrible trading mode of a couple of years ago (when teams knew they could take advantage of Preller…like with Kemp, Upton, Meyers). So the Yankees and Phillies just embarrassed him and stole from the Padres. Who’s next? Boras/Hosmer? Are they going to give up a top 10 to 15 prospect for back up utility player?
What back up utility player are you taking about? And if the Padres get a league average starting SS and a #4 starting pitcher out of these 2 deals, how could you say they are bad deals? The Padres has neither last year and they gave up a AAAA OFer, a possible future #4 starter and $13M of which they will probably get some back when they deal Headley or get a decent prospect if they eat all of the contract.
It will be a while until we know the full ramifications of this, or most, trades. It looks good for the Pads right now, depends on how the young pitcher progresses. And don’t forget, AJ will probably get something for him when Tatis is ready to take over as well. I am a believer in AJ and Balsley when it comes to evaluation of pitchers.
The list that had De Los Santos as the #13 prospect in the Padres system was from last year. He has definitely been passed by Allen, Nix, Arias, and possibly by Rosario, Potts and Ruiz. Yes, he could be a loss, but with the amount of pitching coming up through the Padres system, De Los Santos shouldn’t be missed too terribly bad. That list also didn’t have Munoz, Ornelos or Patino, so it just goes to show that the list still up, and being used in all of these reports, from MLB is from last year. The new list comes out in January and De Los Santos would have most likely been in the 20 range.
As for Galvis, the Padres are definitely looking for leaders for the young guys coming up the next couple of years. Having these leaders actually contributing to the on field product will be a nice change. No more 4th outfielder/back up infielder leaders. The kids may actually listen/look up to guys who can actually produce on the MLB field, not just on the practice field.