Padres step up to plate for Shields
Four-year, $75-million deal follows outfield overhaul in eye-popping off-season
When was the last time, before this winter, that you thought much about the San Diego Padres? Go ahead, take your time. Still thinking?
If you’re coming up empty, it is understandable. No baseball franchise in recent memory has commanded so little attention.
The Houston Astros have been very bad, but historic ineptitude, at least, is interesting. The Mets, with their occasional stars and curious finances, are reliable newsmakers. The Colorado Rockies, Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays have compelling performers, here and there.
The Padres have been almost aggressively bland. In one dizzying offseason, though, baseball’s forgotten team has been impossible to ignore. The Padres are relevant, thanks to a non-stop makeover that will soon, officially, include a new No. 1 starter.
That starter, James Shields, who has twice helped low-budget teams reach the World Series, has another challenge. He will leave the Kansas City Royals for a four-year, $75-million contract with the Padres, according to a baseball official briefed on the deal. Shields must pass a physical before the Padres announce the contract.
The deal, first reported by SB Nation, is by far the richest the Padres have ever given a free agent. The previous high was $15.5 million for reliever Joaquin Benoit, who signed a two-year contract before last season. The Padres are a few decades late to the whole free agency thing, but they chose wisely for their first major play.
Shields, 33, was hit hard in a few post-season games last fall. Otherwise, he is about as reliable as any starter in the majors, with eight consecutive seasons of at least 200 innings. He had a 3.18 earned run average over two seasons with the Royals, and leaves one spacious ballpark for another.
Shields, who also helped the Tampa Bay Rays to the 2008 World Series, will join a rotation with Tyson Ross, Ian Kennedy and Andrew Cashner. Among the candidates for the fifth spot are Josh Johnson and Brandon Morrow, veterans with fragile health but enough potential to be worth a lottery ticket. Newcomers Shawn Kelley and Brandon Maurer will help Benoit in the bullpen.
Pitching should not be a problem, especially at Petco Park, with its cool, dense air. The Padres pitched well there last season and their hitters, as usual, struggled. But offence was a problem everywhere.
The Padres ranked last in the majors in runs scored at home — but just one spot higher on the road. General manager A.J. Preller, who took over last August, targeted Matt Kemp as the centrepiece to revamp the lineup. He got him in a December trade with the Dodgers, who included so much money that the Padres could afford to trade for another slugging outfielder, Justin Upton, from the Atlanta Braves.
Upton, like Kennedy and Benoit, can be a free agent after this season. But Kemp is signed through 2019, and other trade acquisitions bring multiple years of control, including third baseman Will Middlebrooks, catcher Derek Norris and centre fielder Wil Myers.
Myers and Shields were traded for each other before the 2013 season as headliners in a deal that helped catapult the Royals into contention. The Rays still benefit from the trade with starter Jake Odorizzi and the Royals with reliever Wade Davis. But the primary pieces are now co-stars in a different revival.
Shields has maintained his fastball velocity, but someday his workload will wear him down. Cashner has never topped 175 innings in a season. The Padres dealt five former firstround draft picks in their flurry of moves, highlighting the risk of their remake.