{"id":521100,"date":"2026-01-15T04:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/521100\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T04:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T04:05:16","slug":"padres-sign-nick-solak-omar-cruz-to-minor-league-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/521100\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres Sign Nick Solak, Omar Cruz To Minor League Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Padres have signed infielder\/outfielder Nick Solak<\/a> and left-hander Omar Cruz<\/a> to minor league deals, according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America<\/a>. Presumably, both players will be invited to big league camp in spring training.<\/p>\n

Solak, 31, was once a prospect of note with the Rangers but he has struggled to hang around as a useful major leaguer. He stepped to the plate 974 times as a Ranger from 2019 to 2022 but produced a tepid .252\/.327\/.372 batting line. That translated to a 93 wRC+, indicating he was seven percent worse than league average at the plate.<\/p>\n

That subpar offense made for a rough combination with his lack of defensive value. He has played the three non-shortstop infield spots and spent some time in the outfield but has largely received poor grades anywhere he has landed on the diamond.<\/p>\n

He has continued to rake in the minors, however. Just last year, in the Pirates\u2019 system, he stepped to the plate 482 times at the Triple-A level. He had a 10% walk rate, 13% strikeout rate, .332\/.411\/.492 line and 143 wRC+. That was aided by a .364 batting average on balls in play but it likely still would have been decent production even with a bit of regression there. He briefly got called up by Pittsburgh but only got into four games. Since he\u2019s out of options, he was bumped off the 40-man roster entirely.<\/p>\n

A right-handed hitter, Solak has notable platoon splits, with a .279\/.358\/.420 line and 115 wRC+ against lefties in his career. Perhaps that could help him carve out a bench\/utility role, helping the Friars keep southpaws away from lefty hitters like Gavin Sheets<\/a>, Sung Mun Song<\/a> and Jake Cronenworth<\/a> in the first base\/second base\/designated hitter rotation. For now, Solak gives them a bit of position player depth without taking up a roster spot.<\/p>\n

Cruz, 27 later this month, just made his major league debut with San Diego last year. He tossed 3 2\/3 innings for the Padres, allowing two earned runs on four hits and three walks while striking out five.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one day in the year where a player can be cut from a roster and sent to free agency without being exposed to waivers. That day is the non-tender deadline. The Friars non-tendered Cruz, sent him to free agency, and have now brought him back in a non-roster capacity.<\/p>\n

Cruz was a starter for much of his minor league career. He was mostly used as a reliever in 2024 and appeared to have a bit of a breakout year. He had a 3.96 ERA in the minors, striking out 32.3% of batters faced and posting a 9.9% walk rate. Last year, the Padres tried stretching him out again but eventually gave up and moved him back to the bullpen. The result was 83 1\/3 Triple-A innings for the year with a 4.75 ERA, 23.2% strikeout rate and 14.5% walk rate.<\/p>\n

Whether the Padres still have dreams of stretching him out or will keep him in relief remains to be seen. Either way, he gives them some left-handed non-roster depth for now. If he eventually gets a roster spot again, he still has a couple of option seasons remaining.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Padres have signed infielder\/outfielder Nick Solak and left-hander Omar Cruz to minor league deals, according to Matt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,4,12315,15869,43,137,18,4339,4338],"class_list":["post-521100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-san-diego-padres","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-nick-solak","tag-omar-cruz","tag-padres","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sandiego","tag-sandiegopadres"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115897140897756150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}