The long-awaited return of baseball is almost over. This week, pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. Not many teams have as much riding on these two groups as the San Diego Padres. With the Friars\u2019 pitchers and catchers reporting to the Peoria Sports Complex in Arizona, Wednesday, here\u2019s what to look forward to between the two groups.<\/p>\n
Catchers: Who will back up Fermin?<\/p>\n
The Padres addressed their need behind the dish with the trade deadline acquisition of Kansas City Royals backup catcher Freddy Fermin. Fermin hit respectably to start his San Diego tenure with a slash line of .244\/.278\/.339. That might seem low but remember the Friars\u2019 options prior to that were even worse with El\u00edas D\u00edaz and Mart\u00edn Maldonado.<\/p>\n
The question now is who Fermin\u2019s backup will be. Two possibilities are Triple-A El Paso mainstay Luis Campusano and minor league pickup Blake Hunt.<\/p>\n
Time is running out for Campusano. He is out of options and must make the major league roster or else he has to clear waivers to be sent back to the minors. His time in San Diego has been a strange case. A former top 50 prospect, he has struggled to produce in the majors despite the fact he raked in the minor leagues (finishing the season batting .334\/.438\/.586 across 466 plate appearances). His offense has not translated over, with him not recording a hit in 27 plate appearances at the big-league level.<\/p>\n
Adding insult to injury, his defense has never been particularly strong. Across 2023-24 he recorded a -20 defensive runs saved, ranking second worst among qualified catchers. If he can\u2019t put it all together this season, it\u2019s likely general manager A.J. Preller will shop him at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
The Padres picked up Hunt this offseason on a minor league deal. For San Diego it serves as a reunion with the former second-round pick from the 2017 draft. Hunt owns a .245\/.324\/.398 slash line across his eight-year career in the minors. And it\u2019s here that Campusano has one thing over Hunt: major league playing time. Apart from one day on the Baltimore Orioles\u2019 active roster (in which he did not record a plate appearance), Hunt has spent no time at the major league level.<\/p>\n
Because of that, it\u2019s likely Campusano ends up in the backup role, but it remains to be seen given his obvious struggles. It seems Campusano will be the one with the club on March 26, if only so he doesn\u2019t have to clear waivers, but Hunt may be viewed as the more long-term option behind Fermin if Campusano\u2019s production woes continue.<\/p>\n
Pitchers: A duel for back-end spots\u2026 or a late acquisition?<\/p>\n
As the Padres entered the offseason, it was glaringly apparent that the starting rotation was a major problem. In spite of that, San Diego is in a much better position now. Re-signing Michael King and adding numerous minor-league pickups has helped. The first three spots of the rotation are set with Nick Pivetta, King, and Joe Musgrove, but who will follow?<\/p>\n
Randy Vasquez and JP Sears seem to be the favorites for the final spots, given their time in San Diego\u2019s club. Vasquez produced fairly well across 28 games in 2025, but the underlying metrics suggest that will not continue to be the case.<\/p>\n
Sears was part of the blockbuster deal that sent top prospect Leo De Vries to the Athletics and brought Mason Miller to the Padres. He got knocked around for 16 runs after being traded to San Diego, albeit in a smaller sample of 24.2 innings. If Sears can improve his run prevention this spring, he could earn a spot on the roster come Opening Day.<\/p>\n
The Padres extended non-roster invites to Marco Gonzalez, Triston McKenzie and Francis Pe\u00f1a (among others). The three are all candidates to impact the major league roster if they prove themselves in the next month.<\/p>\n
Of the three, McKenzie represents the greatest low-risk, high-reward option. It wasn\u2019t long ago that he finished with a 2.94 ERA across 191 innings during his tenure with the Cleveland Guardians. If he can replicate that even a little, he\u2019ll be well on his way to making the big-league roster.<\/p>\n
As always, it\u2019s impossible to rule out a last-minute Preller addition. Whether by trade or free agency, the Friars always seem to find a way to add. Odds are high, with the Padres having checked in on a number of free agent starters as well as being linked to clubs like the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox throughout the offseason.<\/p>\n
Whatever San Diego does, the prospect of baseball coming back this week is thrilling enough. It\u2019s been a long (and unusually quiet) offseason for the club, and it will be exciting to see how the team performs ahead of Opening Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The long-awaited return of baseball is almost over. This week, pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. Not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,52694,4,43,137,18,2231,2230,4339,4338],"class_list":{"0":"post-563558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-gaslamp-ball-staff-editorials","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-san-diego-padres-analysis-commentary","15":"tag-san-diego-padres-news","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-sandiegopadres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116044408073642104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563558","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=563558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}