The San Diego Padres’ outfield depth chart looks to be in a decent spot heading into the new year, but one injury can always turn things upside-down.
San Diego spent most of this past season struggling to find three viable outfield starters thanks to Jackson Merrill’s injury and the lack of an everyday left fielder. Ramón Laureano came along at the trade deadline and shored up that other corner, but even though he’s returning on a cheap club option, he’s always been a bit inconsistent.
That has prompted the Padres to make a handful of minor-league signings in the outfield this winter, and their latest just happens to be a former first-round pick.
According to the official transactions log of Major League Baseball, the Padres signed 25-year-old outfielder Nick Schnell to a minor-league deal earlier this week. The deal officially happened Sunday, but was not reflected in the log until several days later.
Schnell was once the Tampa Bay Rays’ first-round compensation pick in 2018 out of high school in Indiana. He’s since played 503 games in the minors, putting together a mediocre .242/.319/.425 slash line with 68 home runs.
This season, Schnell played in the Minnesota Twins organization and got 92 games of run in Triple-A, impressing to the tune of an .812 OPS. That signaled that he might be ready for a shot in the majors at some point in the near future, but the Twins also brought in a heavy influx of outfield talent at the trade deadline.
Will Schnell crack the Padres’ roster on opening day? Almost definitely not, but he can make himself a valuable backup option if he continues to show improvement against Triple-A competition, and if injuries happen or Laureano reverts to his lackluster form from most of this decade, he might get his shot.
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