The San Diego Padres will officially have a different starting first baseman on Opening Day after ex-Padre Luis Arraez signed with the San Francisco Giants.
After a long offseason of wondering and waiting for first baseman Luis Arraez to sign, he finally did. Except it wasn’t with the San Diego Padres.
Despite the notion that there was mutual interest in a reunion after the season concluded, the two sides never came to an agreement on a deal, and the three-time batting champion is headed north of San Diego to play second base.
So, who is playing first base for the Padres then? San Diego’s new manager Craig Stammen told the media Sunday that the club has several internal options that can play the position and an outfielder is currently slotted to be the starter headed into spring training.
“We have several guys that can play first base on our team right now, penciled in as our No. 1 option is Gavin Sheets,” Stammen said. “Gavin’s pretty excited to play first base again. He played a lot of outfield last year, a little bit of first base, but he played that coming up through the minor leagues. We have some great infield coaches and position coaches that have been working with him already this offseason.
“We feel really good about a left-handed first baseman and him being able to do a few more things and being that really big target at first base. I know Manny [Machado] and Xander [Bogaerts] are excited about that, being able to throw to somebody a little bigger and a little taller, maybe hopefully save them a few overthrows.”
Sheets was great offensively for the Padres last season, hitting 19 home runs with 71 RBI while slashing .252/.317/.429 in 145 games, but he isn’t known for his defense. He has been a bad defender throughout his career, but his stats improve dramatically as a first baseman (minus-27 defensive runs saved as an outfielder, minus-3 DRS as a first baseman).
Stammen mentioned three other guys who will see some time at first base as well as Sheets: Will Wagner, Sung-Mun Song and Jake Cronenworth.
Wagner played 15 games for the Padres last season and hit just .133 with a 6 OPS+, Song is a utility infielder with limited experience at first base and Cronenworth has tons of experience over there but will likely be the starting second baseman.
Stammen noted Cronenworth’s experience and that he can be a trusted defensive substitute late in games. The organization wants to build up several players who can play multiple positions, especially first base.
San Diego could still bring in an external option on a cheap deal, though. Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reported that several teams including the Padres are interested in first baseman Ty France, the Gold Glove winner of the American League at the position in 2025.
France debuted as a Padre in 2019 and was traded to the Seattle Mariners midseason in 2020.