With the unfortunate news that San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. is not going to play for the first three months of the season due to a wrist injury, the team now finds itself in an interesting position in free agency.
Replacing a guy like Tatis is never going to be an easy task. The Padres are most likely going to just try to find somebody who can fill a need for them for the first three months of the season and then just have that guy back up Tatis when he returns.
One in-house option that is rumored to have a high possibility is the Padres bringing up CJ Abrams. He was the sixth pick of the 2019 MLB Draft and is currently the number six rated prospect in all of baseball and the number one prospect in the Padres organization. Bringing him up early might not be their best idea, but it could be something that they do think about doing. Abrams has not played an inning in the MLB yet and in his short minor league career, he has a .296 batting average with a .363 base percentage. Not only does he find ways to get on base at a high level, he is also a high-level defender and has above-average speed. He wouldn't be a bad option, but for a team that is looking to win a World Series, it might not be in the Padres' best interest to bring a kid up with no experience to be the captain of the infield.
Instead, let's take a look at two players that the Padres could be interested in acquiring after Tatis' injury.
Padres Free Agency Targets After Fernando Tatis Jr. Injury
2. Jonathan Villar
Bringing in somebody like Villar might not be a bad idea for the Padres. He's one of those guys who doesn't really do anything particularly outstanding but is a more-than-serviceable player. He is always going to give you some valuable innings both on the defensive side of the ball and at the plate. He's a career .258 hitter and has hit nearly 100 home runs throughout his career.
Villar also gets on base at an above-average clip as he has a .326 on-base percentage for his career. He has also slugged over .400 for his career.
Villar isn't necessarily somebody who is going to make an immediate impact for the Padres or help them be the unit that they are expecting to be, but he is still somebody who can come in and give some valuable innings. Plus, he is going to be cheap. If the Padres want to save some money to go out there and get a few other free agents, somebody like Villar could be a good option for them.
He has also played a few different positions throughout his career. If the Padres were to have any other unfortunate injuries, having somebody like Villar who can play almost every infield position is going to prove to be valuable.
1. Trevor Story
As crazy as it might sound, there are now some rumors that the Padres could be interested in adding Story. It might not make the most sense from their perspective because they do have a loaded infield when healthy, but they could also put Jake Cronenworth at first base for the entire season and have Story just play second base when Tatis returns from injury.
When talking about a guy like Story, we are talking about a guy who is arguably a top-five shortstop in all of baseball. Not only would he solidify that shortstop role while Tatis is injured, but he would also make an immediate impact for the team and even be a guy that could help the Padres win a championship in the near future. The one issue with this is that he is asking for a boatload of money, and that would probably take the Padres out of a few other big free agent names.
Still, this could be something that the Padres are interested in doing because even if they are going to pay him a big sum of cash and not have much left for other guys, there aren't really many other areas that the team is going to need to improve on once the roster is fully healthy.
The Padres have only made it to the MLB Playoffs once in the last 15 years, so perhaps taking a big risk might be something that they need to do to turn their fortunes around.
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