Padres notes: Tyler Wade gives loads, together with left-handed bat, as bench battle right down to last days

The Padres have treasured few left-handed hitters on their 40-man roster.

A lot of the gamers vying for bench spots have little or no main league expertise.

Tyler Wade gives each a left-handed bat and expertise taking part in all around the subject within the main leagues, and on Sunday he continued to tighten his grasp on a roster spot.

“That’s simply what I deliver to the desk, proper? I’m mainly a Swiss military knife,” Wade stated. “And I’m not likely frightened concerning the development of the roster. Simply if I do my half, that’s the one factor I can deal with.”

Wade has performed each outfield place and each infield place besides first base over elements of seven seasons within the main leagues, which makes him among the many most skilled and versatile of the present combatants for a utility position.

This spring, Wade has began at second base, third and shortstop and performed two innings in middle subject. In Sunday’s 5-4 loss to the Angels, he tripled, walked and scored twice. The hit upped his team-leading complete to 9. He’s batting .321/.367/.429 in 30 plate appearances.

“There’s loads to love about Tyler Wade,” supervisor Mike Shildt stated. “He’s carried out a very nice job this camp. He can clearly run. He can bunt. In actual easy phrases, ‘How does he assist beat the opposite staff?’ And he’s acquired a whole lot of completely different weapons he can use in his toolbox to beat the opposite staff.”

With catcher Kyle Higashioka and outfielder Jurickson Profar thought-about digital locks, the Padres would appear to have 4 out there bench/utility spots — with 11 gamers remaining in camp battling to fill these spots.

Two different left-handed hitters present completely different ranges of versatility as properly.

Brad Miller, who was signed to a minor-league deal on Tuesday, has performed at the least 130 innings in any respect seven subject positions over the course of 11 big-league seasons. He’s hitless in 5 at-bats this spring. Third catcher Brett Sullivan, additionally a left-handed hitter, has been working at first base and on Sunday performed two innings in left subject. Sullivan, who performed 33 video games for the Padres final season, is 6-for-22 (.273) with a double, a triple, a homer and a stroll this spring.

The opposite lefty-hitting bench candidates are gamers who completed final season at Double-A — infielder Graham Pauley and outfielder Jakob Marsee, the group’s Eleventh- and 12-ranked prospects, respectively. Pauley is batting .308 (8-for-26) with 5 walks this spring and is being given ample alternative to indicate he could make the bounce. Marsee is 5-for-21 (.238) with 5 walks this spring.

Outfielders Óscar Mercado, José Azócar and Tim Locastro all have major-league expertise. Azócar is 8-for-28 (.286) with a double, a homer and a stroll. Mercado is 7-for-21 (.333) with two doubles, two homers and two walks. Locastro, who signed a minor-league contract on Feb. 28, is 6-for-13 (.462) with two doubles and a stroll.

Eguy Rosario (7-for-28 this spring) and Matthew Batten (3-for-24) had been with the membership for stints every of the previous two seasons and may play throughout the infield. Mason McCoy (7-for-24) is one other versatile infield piece who was 0-for-1 in his solely main league at-bat (final season for the Blue Jays).

One of many utility infielders will seemingly be the Padres’ beginning third baseman on opening day, as Manny Machado is anticipated to function designated hitter in Korea whereas he works again from elbow surgical procedure.

“It’s attempting to place the jigsaw puzzle collectively,” Shildt stated. “The excellent news is we’ve acquired a whole lot of transferring elements to it. Some days you simply want you had extra innings.”

The Padres should be right down to 31 gamers by Wednesday after they go away for Seoul, South Korea, the place they start the season with a two-game sequence in opposition to the Dodgers on March 20 and 21. Basically, which means they are going to finalize their touring occasion by Tuesday evening, because the staff leaves for the airport from the Peoria Sports activities Advanced after its recreation Wednesday afternoon. With 15 or 16 pitchers headed to Korea, which means the present group of bench candidates should be pared to to 6 or seven gamers.

Notable

• Reliever Yuki Matsui threw 20 pitches whereas going through 5 batters on a again subject Sunday. His subsequent step is anticipated to be an inning in a Cactus League recreation Tuesday or Wednesday. The left-hander has pitched in only one spring recreation as a consequence of a again pressure suffered Feb. 25.
• The Padres have 43 gamers in big-league camp after sending 5 pitchers to the minors Saturday. Alek Jacob and Logan Gillaspie had been optioned to minor-league camp. Ryan Bergert, Tommy Nance and Jayvien Sandridge had been reassigned to the minor-league camp.
• The Padres and Dodgers are anticipated to announce their opening-day starters at 9 a.m. PT Monday. It has lengthy been obvious the Padres have lined up Joe Musgrove to start out the primary recreation with Yu Darvish beginning the second recreation.