San Diego Padres manager Craig Stammen had a busy and exciting first week as the on-field manager of the Friars. After setting the tone of relaxed and straightforward media scrums, Stammen was gifted by president of baseball operations A.J. Preller with a flurry of baseball moves, creating a lot of business for the first week.
Adding three position players and three starting pitchers, Preller complicated the decisions the Padres brass have to make before camp breaks on March 23. The obvious needs going into pitchers and catchers reporting on Feb. 10 were starting pitching depth and a platoon partner for first baseman Gavin Sheets and DH candidates who can also add bench depth.
There is nothing saying that Preller is done as we head into the start of spring games at the Peoria Sports Complex on Friday. I would be surprised if there aren’t multiple additional moves made before the start of the regular season. But now there are multiple competitions taking place in the rotation and in the DH and 1B needs.
1B/DH options
Miguel Andujar has a lot of experience as a third baseman and has played some outfield. Nick Castellanos came up as a third baseman as well but spent a lot of his career playing corner outfield. Ty France is a Gold Glove first baseman from last season but has trailed off on his offense.
Korean infielder Sung-Mun Song will reportedly be tested at first base, the outfield and maybe even shortstop. The only true backup outfielder is Bryce Johnson, who has played well in limited duty and is a true centerfielder. There is only Jake Cronenworth as the current backup at shortstop until the bench is decided.
Starting pitchers
Starters Germán Márquez, Griffin Canning and Walker Buehler are all at various stages of recovering from surgery and trying to return to form. Canning and Márquez are on major league deals. They join Matt Waldron, Kyle Hart, JP Sears, Randy Vasquez, Triston McKenzie and Marco Gonzales competing for the fourth, fifth and maybe even, sixth starter spots.
It has been floated in camp that the Padres are considering slow-playing Joe Musgrove, Michael King and Griffin Canning as the season begins. If Canning and Musgrove don’t begin in the rotation, there will be more spots open and they could shift into a six-man group to space the recovering pitchers out even more.
That would complicate the tough decisions in the bullpen that already exist but everyone except Ron Marinaccio have options remaining and could start in Triple-A. Stammen even threw out Logan Gillaspie as a possible jack-of-all-trades pitcher. Spot starter, long-man and late-inning bulk pitcher were all mentioned as possible work for him. Gillaspie was scheduled to start the first game on Friday against the Seattle Mariners but was scratched because his wife went into labor according to Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Left-hander Jagger Haynes will start in his place.
WBC provides more opportunities
With multiple roster players leaving for the WBC on March 1, the other candidates will get more time to show what they can do. There will be lots of innings to go around with Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Mason Miller, Wandy Peralta, Alek Jacob, Yuki Matsui and Ron Marinaccio all leaving to play in the WBC.
Two players who won’t be participating are Jhony Brito and Tirso Ornelas. Brito was placed on the 60-day IL to add Márquez to the roster and Ornelas was designated for assignment when Canning was added. If Ornelas clears waivers he could return to the minor leagues and stay in the organization.
ABS in 2026
The Padres used the stadium field in the complex to practice using the ABS system for part of their practice on Wednesday. The team needs to figure out its plan for using the system for the 2026 season and the hitters and catchers will probably be primarily responsible for making those decisions. The general opinion is that pitchers are too emotionally involved and too far away from home plate to make good decisions about appealing ball and strike calls. Not saying we won’t ever see it, but it will likely be a rare occurrence.
If you don’t remember from last spring the basics of the system, here are the main points to remember as you follow the Cactus League games.
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The strike zone is different for each hitter, based on their height and is measured by an outside contractor.
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Each team begins the game with two challenges and if a challenge is won then the team retains it.
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If a team is out of challenges and the game goes into extra innings, they get an additional challenge each inning played.
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The pitcher, catcher and hitter are the only people on the field allowed to challenge. No input from the dugout or coaches. It must be appealed immediately so there is no chance to check with the dugout.
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No challenges allowed if a position player is pitching.
The player taps their hat or helmet to challenge, and the pitch will be shown on the video board with the result visible to everyone in the stadium and on TV. As a result of the new system, the on-screen strike zone box will not indicate a ball or strike.
All Padres games will be available either on radio, webcast, or Padres.TV. The televised games will be free on the MLB app.
The first game is Friday and the last is March 23. There are no exhibition games for the Padres after the spring schedule. They do play an exhibition against Team Great Britain on March 4 and the second annual Spring Breakout game between Padres prospects and, this year, the Cubs prospects takes place on March 21.
If you are planning on a trip to Peoria to watch practice and catch a game, the team made significant improvements to the practice complex that gives the players nicer facilities. The stadium has similar rules to Petco Park regarding security and bag policy. Players are usually relaxed and accessible to fans at the practice fields and along the seating bowl before games. Most are good about stopping and signing, for kids especially. Just remember they have work to do and can only stop when their work is done.
Players going to their WBC teams will leave on March 1 and will return when their team is eliminated from the tournament. If any Padres players are in the final, don’t expect to see them back in Arizona until after the final on March 17.
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