INJURY CREATING OPPORTUNITY
Juan Soto again threw in the outfield at the Peoria Sports Complex on Friday morning and progressed to dry swings, another reason for Padres manager Bob Melvin to remain hopeful that his superstar left fielder will be available for the season opener in less than a week. Meantime, a more precarious development — the hamstring that Adam Engel strained in a splitsquad game on Thursday — could lead to more decisions and opportunities as the Padres configure their bench.
The 31-year-old Engel had been considered a lock after signing a big-league deal in January, but he came up lame after tracking a ball down in right field against the Royals.
“Hamstrings can be a little bit (tricky),” Melvin said. “So we’ll see how he progresses, but … I think it’d be tough for him to make another game here in spring training, at least the last (three).”
The revelation of Engel’s injury cast a different light on Friday’s lineup against the Angels as Rougned Odor, a 29-year-old veteran of nine big-league seasons, started in left for his first outfield assignment at any level ever. The outfield tryout had already been in the offing as the Padres considered all possibilities as they await Fernando Tatis Jr.’s return from suspension on April 20.
Predominantly a second baseman in the majors, the left-handed-hitting Odor (.889 OPS this spring) is in camp on a minor league deal, as is the right-handedhitting Tim Lopes (.904 OPS), who has played the infield and the outfield in the majors and minors.
The left-handed-hitting David Dahl is also in camp on a minor league deal and had thrown his hat squarely in the mix with an .315/.327/ .500 effort so far this spring.
As 40-man options go, the speed of Jose Azocar (.781 OPS) would make it tough to leave him off the roster and, if the Padres are indeed looking for another bench bat, Brandon Dixon can play the corners in the outfield and infield and his .823 slugging percentage over 51 games in the high minors last year could outweigh a slow spring (.608 OPS).
If Engel has to start the season on the injured list, it stands to reason that those players — Azocar, Dahl, Odor, Lopes and Dixon — are leading the competition for three spots on the roster.
Bally watch
The Union-Tribune has confirmed that Diamond Sports’ grace period will end at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, sharpening the questions facing Bally Sports San Diego as Thursday’s season opener approaches. Diamond, which operates as Bally, missed last week’s rights fee payment to the team, the second such payment missed to a Major League Baseball club amid filing for bankruptcy protection.
MLB has been positioning itself to take over teams’ broadcasts should Diamond default on any of its 14 regional sports network deals. That could result in temporary free streams online while the league negotiates deals for cable broadcasts, although that would happen only after broadcast rights are reacquired through legal proceedings. The Padres are one of nine teams that Diamond does not own streaming rights for, complicating its effort to make up for revenue lost during the cord-cutting movement.
Diamond has said it plans to continue carrying teams’ broadcasts amid its bankruptcy proceedings.
It remains to be seen how things will proceed if the grace period ends without a payment to the Padres.
Planned pairing
Austin Nola (nose) continued to ramp up baseball activity, including catching Seth Lugo’s bullpen in the morning. Nola is expected to return to game action before Cactus League action comes to an end Monday, but the uncertainty over his status for the opener made it imperative to get opening day starter Blake Snell and catcher Luis Campusano on the same page.
Mission accomplished on Friday: Snell struck out six and scattered three hits and a walk over six shutout innings in his final start of the spring.
“A really good tune-up,” Melvin said. “Got him matched up with Campy, too, which is a good thing as well. Obviously with (Snell) on opening day and we’re still a little uncertain about Nola, it’s good to match them up and have some success leading into Blake’s first outing of the year.”
Bogaerts’ wrist Xander Bogaerts
showed up to the Padres’ clubhouse on Friday with a splint on his left wrist after receiving a cortisone shot. He’s expected to be held out again today, play the final two Cactus League games and be good to go for the opener on Thursday.
Bogaerts told the Boston Globe last year that he’d been receiving cortisone shots in both that wrist and shoulder, the aftermath of a collision in short left field last May with Alex Verdugo.
Bogaerts has periodically required wrist maintenance over at least the last two years.
“There’s no concern,” Melvin said. “He has one of these a spring.”
Notable
Tatis was out front and on his lead foot when he poked his second homer of the spring over the wall in center, 420 feet away from the plate. Said Melvin: “Nothing else is going out of this ballpark and he hits it off his front foot and hits it over the center field wall. It doesn’t surprise you. He’s really one of those special talents. I’ve seen it from the other side and now I get to see him on my side and I like it a lot better this way.”
• RHP Yu Darvish will throw three to four innings in a minor league game today in Peoria. He’ll likely start another game on the back fields and fold into the rotation on the sixth day of the season, meaning the Padres could look to carry six starting pitchers on the opening-day roster.
• LHP Ray Kerr was optioned to Triple-A El Paso and OF Luis Liberato and INF Rangel Ravelo were reassigned to minor league camp. The Padres have 50 players remaining in bigleague camp.