Pittsburgh Pirates: Why Pick Up Infielder Kevin Padlo?
The Pittsburgh Pirates made a waiver claim on Sunday, bringing in a new infielder. He was immediately optioned to Triple-A.
It was a relatively quiet Trade Deadline for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They swung two significant trades, dealing away veterans Jose Quintana, and Chris Stratton to the Cardinals, and Daniel Vogelbach to the Mets. The team also sent catcher Michael Perez to the Mets. On deadline day the Bucs made a small trade with the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Jeremy Beasly. The Bucs sent cash considerations back in the deal.
So in terms of trades, there were no stunners for fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates. But since then the Pittsburgh Pirates have been pretty active. The team cut veteran Yoshi Tsutsugo the day after the trade deadline. Then they claimed catcher Jose Godoy off of waivers from the Minnesota Twins. The team outrighted minor league veteran Taylor Davis to make room for Godoy.
On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Pirates made another waiver claim. The team picked up off the waiver wire corner infielder Kevin Padlo. Padlo was designated for assignment by the Seattle Mariners to make room for an outfielder. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Bucs released veteran outfielder Jake Marisnick. Marisnick was on the Injured List and will likely catch on with a contender once he is ready.
Padlo is a former Draft pick of the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies drafted him in 2014 and saw him become a Top 20 prospect in their system. The Rockies trade Padlo to the Rays before the 2016 season. Ironically, he was the other player along with Corey Dickerson to go to the Rays in the deal. Dickerson of course came to the Bucs before the 2018 season.
When he joined the Rays he was considered to be a Top 20 prospect in their system for both the 2017 and 2018 seasons. However, he started to struggle offensively and fell off the prospect radar entering the 2019 season. He has a career minor league batting average of .241 so one can imagine why he did fall off prospect radars.
In 2021 he was claimed off of waivers by the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners sent him to their Triple-A affiliate and Padlo had a breakthrough season. He ended up with a slash line of .298/.388/.596. The other part of the equation that makes Padlo interesting is his power projection. The right-handed hitting infielder has a career ISO of over .200 in the minor leagues, which is well above average.
So why did Ben Cherington put a claim in on Kevin Padlo? It is a low-risk high-reward situation. Padlo is a former top prospect who was a part of a return in a significant trade. He then spent the next 6 years in the Rays Organization, one of the best in Baseball.
Furthermore, Ben Cherington worked for the division rival Toronto Blue Jays from 2016-2019. There obviously is a good chance that Cherington has a lot of background knowledge on the former Rays’ prospect. If nothing more this is a player that has a chance to provide some much-needed right-handed power. It will be interesting to see if he gets a chance this year. My guess is he will.