The San Diego Padres continue to have a quiet offseason, but the team is making minor moves, signing multi-positional player Nick Solak and left-handed pitcher Omar Cruz to minor league deals, with the moves reported by Darragh McDonald of MLBTradeRumors.com via Matt Eddy of Baseball America.
Solak is 31, and he was once a prospect with the Texas Rangers, but lately he’s been struggling to hang on. He got nearly a thousand at-bats with the Rangers from 2019-2022 but his lukewarm .252/.327/.372 slash line translated to Solak being seven percent worse than league average, according to McDonald.
What’s keeping Solak around is his ability to rake in the minors. In some ways he’s a classic “Four A” player, as his .332/.411/.492 slash line at Triple A with the Pirates suggests. He was called up but got into just four games for the Pirates, who elected to leave him off their 40-man roster.
Solak also has intriguing platoon splits, which is likely part of what piqued the Padres interest. His career numbers are .279/.358/.420 against left-handers, which could help San Diego against left-handers looking to target first baseman Gavin Sheet and Jake Cronenworth.
Cruz is more unusual in that he did actually appear with the Padres last year. He made his major league debut by throwing 3-2/3 innings, but Cruz allowed two earned runs on four hits while walking three and striking out five.
The Padres decided to non-tender Cruz, thus making him a free agent, and now he’s back on a non-roster deal. He’ll be 27 later this month, and Cruz has spent most of his minor league career as a starter. He doesn't really have a role at the moment, though, unlike most members of San Diego's staff.
Cruz performed well initially when he was shifted to the bullpen, with a strikeout rate of 32.3 percent and a walk rate of just 9.9 percent. The Padres tried stretching him out given their bullpen depth, but when that didn’t work Cruz ended up in back in the pen. The back-and-forth movement definitely hurt his numbers, as Cruz ended up with a 4.75 ERA.
That movement also fits in with the Padres’ current uncertainty about their staff. Cruz might be worth developing if the Pads decided to move one of their better relievers, but so far the rumors about that are just that, and Cruz will really have to shine in spring training to make the club.