Padres News: San Diego Padres Make Roster Cuts
On Monday morning, the San Diego Padres made their third roster cuts of the Spring Training. With over 50 players on the MLB roster, the Padres took the first steps towards getting the roster down to only 25.
In addition to Hunter Renfroe, Jose Rondon, Tayron Guerrero, Jose Torres, and Frank Garces mentioned above, right hander Cory Mazzoni was also reassigned to minor league camp this morning. In total six Padres were sent down to the minors, leaving 49 players on the big league roster.
Both Guerrero and Mazzoni were optioned to Triple-A El Paso, Rondon to Double-A San Antonio, Torres to Single-A Lake Elsinore while both Garces and Renfroe were not assigned to a specific minor league affiliate. The Padres still have 24 cuts to make before Opening Day, leaving half the remaining players still to be cut from the team.
While none of these moves are altogether surprising, as most of the players were likely going to start in Triple-A anyway, the moves still deserve some analysis.
With a plethora of new bullpen options added this offseason, including Rule 5 additions Blake Smith and Josh Martin, as well as Fernando Rodney, its clear last years holdovers in the bullpen were expendable. Both Cory Mazzoni and Frank Garces saw some big league time last season, 8 2/3 and 38 innings respectively, but neither was able to maintain any consistent performance, as both finished the season with ERAs over 5.00. Even so, both will likely remain in Triple-A this season and be used as depth options should the need for more arms arise.
As for the other two pitchers reassigned to minor league camp, both were even bigger long shots to make the team this season. Tayron Guerrero made good strides in the minors last year, but he has not fared well in Spring Training this year, giving up three runs in just three innings. On the other hand, Jose Torres is still young and has not yet had enough time to develop in the minor leagues. He could be a solid big leaguer at some point, but he is likely still a few years away.
Finally, both shortstop Jose Rondon and outfielder Hunter Renfroe were also reassigned to camp. It was pretty clear that Rondon wasn’t going to make the Padres team out of Spring Training, especially with recently signed Alexei Ramirez and Rondon™s lack of full development at the minor league level. He will start the year in Double-A while Javier Guerra will likely start at Lake Elsinore.
Hunter Renfroe, Jose Rondon, Tayron Guerrero, Jose Torres and Frank Garces all head to Minor League camp today. Think that was it for moves.
— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) March 14, 2016
With regard to Hunter Renfroe, there was at least some chance that he could make the big league roster out of Spring Training if he was impressive enough. Given service time concerns, that wasn’™t a big chance, but it was still there. Renfroe wasn’™t bad but he wasn’™t impressive either, collecting four hits in 16 at bats this Spring Training. Renfroe will likely start the year back in Triple-A with a mid to late season call up being likely.
All in all, every cut the Padres made this morning was inevitable. None of these players were truly fighting for roster spots, and all will be given further development in the minor leagues to start the season. Although they haven’™t earned roster spots yet, at least a few of these guys could see some significant playing time at some point this season, one way or another.
Editorial and Prospect Writer for East Village Times. Twenty-five years young, Patrick has lived in San Diego for his entire life and has been a Padres fan nearly as long. Patrick lives for baseball and is always looking to learn new things about the game he loves through advanced stats.