The San Diego Padres made a series of roster moves, with the important ones based on creating room for Nick Pivetta.
The San Diego Padres have made a series of roster moves, two to accommodate the return of starter Nick Pivetta, along with a couple of others in which they’ve released a pair of players, according to a pair of reports from Darragh McDonald and Steve Adams of MLBTradeRumors com.
One of the moves was about making room for Pivetta, as the Padres sent Johny Brito back down to Triple-A El Paso. Brito had some moments during his return to San Diego, but there’s almost no such thing as a low-leverage inning with the Padres now in a 19-game sprint to beat out the Arizona Diamondbacks for the third wild card.
The Padres also designated catcher Blake Hunt for assignment. The 27-year old started the season on a minor league deal, per McDonald, and he was briefly on he big league roster when Freddy Fermin got hurt. He shared catching duties with Rodolfo Duran until Fermin came back, and after that he was optioned back to the minors.
Hunt did get to make his major league debut, but he struck out in all three of his plate appearances. The catcher became expendable when prospect Ethan Salas got called up, and now Hunt will be placed on waivers.
He does have some solid minor league numbers with a career slash line of .259/.339/.467 in just over a thousand plate appearances. That includes a better line of .301/.381/.617 line, and Hunt has a solid reputation for his defensive work in the minors as well, according to McDonald.
The other two moves have the Padres releasing a pair of right-handers in J.P. France and Jose Leclerc, per the minor league transaction log. France was cut loose by the Astros and signed by San Diego in early August, but the 31-year old was hit hard in the 10-2/3 innings he pitched for El Paso.
He does have MLB experience with Houston, though, as he was once the Astros’ No. 21 prospect. He’s had shoulder injuries since, though, and his velocity is still down after sugery in 2024.
Leclerc was signed by San Diego back in December, and he was hoping for a bounceback season after missing most of 2025 due to a lat strain that eventually required surgery, per Adams. He was with the A’s when the injury hit, but he pitched only nine innings, and this year’s recovery effort didn’t work out well so he'll be looking for a new home.
