WITH SO MANY AT WBC, TIME NOW FOR SOME
Padres’ lineups will feature players vying for key bench roles
Brandon Dixon showed up at the Peoria Sports Complex a year ago in nondescript baseball garb befitting his anonymity and longshot chances of getting a job via a tryout on the back fields of the Padres’ complex.
Less than seven months later, he was at Citi Field in a Padres uniform, taking batting practice and grounders and staying ready in case he was needed at some point during the Padres’ wild-card series against the Mets.
“If you would have told me with how the year started that it would end in that way, I mean, in my head, I’d be like, ‘Oh, yeah, that could happen,’ ” Dixon said the other day. “But for it to go the way it did, to say, ‘You’re gonna play 50 games and somehow sneak onto a playoff roster.’ It’s not at all how I would have drawn up last year. It was a wild ride.”
Dixon, a veteran of 202 major league games between 2018-20, came back from a year in Japan and got
no job offers. So after that March tryout he signed with the Padres and was assigned to Double-A at the start of last season. Sandwiched around an elbow injury that sidelined him for three months, Dixon posted a 1.216 OPS in 25 games in Double-A and a 1.313 OPS in 25 games in Triple-A and was called up to the majors on Sept. 27.
The playoffs began 10 days later, and he was on the roster.
You just never know. That’s the guiding principle for plenty of players in a Padres camp unlike so many before it.
And this is a better option. It is possible some of them would have a better shot at making a non-contending club out of camp. But maybe not.
“Teams that aren’t winning, it’s harder for a guy like me because they typically go younger, less-service-time guys,” David Dahl said. “It just felt like for me this
would be a good opportunity to come in and be a fourth or fifth outfielder, earn some at-bats where I can show I can help the team win. This is a World Series-type team. It would be really cool to win a World Series.”
That’s the other thing. Many of the players competing for a bench spot have been in the major leagues on bad teams.
“I’ve been in places where you come up and you get a chance, and you really enjoy that,” said Dixon, who played 117 games for the 47win Tigers in 2019 and 74 games for the 67-win Reds in ’18. “But it’s tough to lose that many games in a season.”
Said infielder Tim Lopes, who played parts of three seasons with the Mariners and Brewers: “Being a big-leaguer is the best job in the world. It’s one of those things where when you make the big leagues, it’s amazing. But then when you make the big leagues, you want to win.”
Dahl, Dixon, Lopes, Jose Azocar, Rougned Odor and Rangel Ravelo are the kinds of players who made up the bulk of the Padres’ roster much of the past 54 years. They all might have started a significant number of games in 2016 or ’17 or ’18.
Not now. Making this roster is going to be tough.
“Oh, I know that,” Ravelo said, laughing as he did. “A lot of superstars on this team.”
It is at the top of the roster where the difference is most noticeable. It is Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado and Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr. who likely will play the biggest role in whatever success the Padres have in 2023.
But a distinction can be made, too, at the figurative bottom of the 26-man roster.
“It seems a lot deeper,” manager Bob Melvin said.
And that was even comparing the bench depth to last season.
The improved depth begins with the additions of veterans Matt Carpenter and Nelson Cruz, who likely will platoon at designated hitter and be primary options off the bench when they don’t start. Carpenter can also fill in at the corner infield spots.
The Padres signed outfielder Adam Engel to a major league contract, and he is expected to begin playing soon after being sidelined by a calf strain.
After accounting for No. 2 catcher Luis Campusano and assuming a spot is Engel’s to lose, that leaves two places available on the opening-day roster. (One of those is expected to be open for just 20 games, as Tatis finishes serving his PED suspension.)
And with so many Padres regulars playing in the World Baseball Classic, the competitors for those open spots are getting plenty of playing time. Watching a spring game over the next couple weeks will be like going back in time.
“Our lineup some days aren’t going to look like major league starters,” Melvin acknowledged.
The players wearing brown will largely be guys trying to get to, get back to or hang on in the major leagues.
The favorites to win spots through the first one-third of camp would seem to be Azocar, Dahl and Odor. Not only have they begun with strong performances and possess utility-friendly tools, there is value in MLB experience.
Azocar was on the team last season, Odor is a nine-year veteran and the left-handed-hitting Dahl was an All-Star in 2019. All three are at least capable defenders. Azocar and Dahl can play all three outfield positions. Odor, primarily a second baseman, has a history of power from the left side.
A roster spot on March 30 is not all that is available, either.
“If I go to El Paso and play well there, we will see what happens,” Ravelo said. “You never know when the opportunity comes. I’m gonna be there for that chance.”