{"id":555722,"date":"2026-02-05T08:28:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/555722\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T08:28:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:28:50","slug":"padres-to-sign-miguel-andujar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/555722\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres To Sign Miguel Andujar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Padres reportedly have an agreement with free agent corner infielder\/outfielder Miguel Andujar<\/a> on a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2027. It\u2019s a $4MM guarantee that includes a $1.5MM salary for the upcoming season. That suggests there\u2019s a $2.5MM option buyout. The CAA client can earn another $2MM+ via incentives. San Diego has a couple openings on the 40-man roster and won\u2019t need to make any corresponding moves.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tidy bit of business for the Padres, who add a strong right-handed bat on a modest contract. Andujar, 31 next month, put together an excellent .318\/.352\/.470 slash line over 94 games a year ago. He split the year between the A\u2019s and Reds, so he was certainly the beneficiary of favorable home parks, but that\u2019s above-average production in any stadium.<\/p>\n

It was Andujar\u2019s best season since his 2018 Rookie of the Year runner-up campaign when he played for the Yankees. He has been a part-time player for the majority of his career and didn\u2019t get to 200 plate appearances in any season from 2019-23. He tallied 319 trips to the plate while putting up a league average .285\/.320\/.377 mark for the A\u2019s in 2024. Andujar weathered a pair of injuries that year, undergoing an early-season meniscus repair on his right knee and a season-ending core procedure in August.<\/p>\n

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The A\u2019s nevertheless tendered Andujar a $3MM contract for his final season of arbitration. He hit .298\/.329\/.436 in 60 games before being traded to Cincinnati. He really turned things on upon landing with the Reds, running a .359\/.400\/.544 line over 110 plate appearances to close the season. He hit well against pitchers of either handedness but particularly teed off on left-handers. The righty-swinging Andujar has been a plus against southpaws throughout his career, batting .297\/.332\/.475 in 521 plate appearances with the platoon advantage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s somewhat surprising that strong finish didn\u2019t result in a better market. Although teams obviously weren\u2019t going to expect him to keep up the pace he showed with the Reds, his track record against lefties and plus contact skills make him a strong bat to have on the bench. There are enough red flags in the profile that clubs seemingly still view him as a lower-end utility piece. Andujar has an aggressive approach and isn\u2019t going to take many walks. He doesn\u2019t have huge exit velocities and is largely dependent on an elevated average on balls in play to carry the offensive profile.<\/p>\n

Andujar also has an extensive injury history going back to the 2019 labrum repair in his right shoulder that wiped out his second season in the majors. He had the aforementioned pair of surgeries in \u201924 and missed five weeks last year with a right oblique strain. He also doesn\u2019t have a clear defensive fit. He\u2019s a subpar defender at third base and in the outfield. Andujar has a strong arm but isn\u2019t a good runner or athlete.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably not a huge concern for San Diego, who projects to use him mostly as a first baseman or designated hitter.\u00a0Manny Machado<\/a> is locked in at third, while\u00a0Ram\u00f3n Laureano<\/a> and\u00a0Fernando Tatis Jr.<\/a> have the corner outfield spots. Andujar should be a good complement to lefty hitters\u00a0Gavin Sheets<\/a> and\u00a0Sung-mun Song<\/a>, who had been lined up as the primary options at first base and designated hitter. He can step in for Sheets at first base against southpaws while still getting a decent amount of playing time at DH versus righty pitching, as Song is expected to bounce around the diamond to keep other players fresh.<\/p>\n

The lower salary and mutual option is a common tactic for San Diego. It allows them to kick a little over half the contract back to the end of the season. RosterResource<\/a> calculates their cash payroll around $221MM. Their luxury tax estimate is much higher, landing around $266MM. They\u2019ll be paying the luxury tax for a second straight season. They\u2019re taxed at a 30% rate on spending between $244MM and $264MM, which comes out to a $6MM hit. That jumps to 42% for their next $20MM. Andujar\u2019s salary is low enough that it won\u2019t much impact their CBT ledger, as they\u2019re only paying around $1.25MM in taxes to add him. The Padres could still look for a bench bat and a back-end starter as Spring Training approaches.<\/p>\n

Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a> was first on the agreement. ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan<\/a> had the one-year, $4MM terms. Heyman<\/a> reported the mutual option and salary. Will Sammon of The Athletic<\/a> reported the upwards of $2MM in bonuses.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Jeff Hanisch, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Padres reportedly have an agreement with free agent corner infielder\/outfielder Miguel Andujar on a one-year deal with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4808,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-555722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-miguel-andujar","10":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116017087478373864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555722","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=555722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}