The San Diego Padres and general manager A.J. Preller are still adjusting the team's roster. However, this time it wasn't through a trade.
San Diego called up top prospect Austin Hedges and the catcher debuted against the San Francisco Giants last night, but he struck out in a pinch-hit at-bat against left-hander Madison Bumgarner. Dennis Lin of UT San Diego reported the move on Sunday night, but it became official when the team designated backup catcher Wil Nieves for assignment on Monday.
MLB.com ranks Hedges as the Padres' top prospect, but Baseball America now has him at No. 2 behind outfielder Hunter Renfroe. Hedges was previously No. 4 for Baseball America, but the club traded prospects Matt Wisler and Trea Turner prior to the 2015 MLB season. The 22-year-old was batting .324/.392/.521 with 12 runs scored, 2 home runs and 15 RBIs in 21 games with Triple-A El Paso this season before getting the call.
Nieves was struggling mightily both offensively and defensively and manager Bud Black realized incumbent starter Derek Norris is going to need more days off as the season progresses. Considering Nieves wasn't getting the job done, the Padres opted to give Hedges a shot after the youngster spent his second consecutive spring training with the team.
"I talked to (El Paso manager) Pat Murphy (Saturday), and the reports on [Austin] Hedges were great," Black told Lin. "His swinging the bat, catching, receiving, blocking, maturity level, like we talked about this spring, has really come forward. He's not the same player he was a year ago, maturity-wise, his self-confidence, where he is in his game."
San Diego figured this would be a good way to work the prospect into gaining some major league experience because he will get decent reps on offense and defense while also playing behind a successful catcher in Norris, who is batting .323/.343/.500 with 16 runs scored, 2 home runs and 16 RBIs in 26 games with the Pads since coming over in a trade from the Oakland Athletics this offseason.
Hedges was one of the few top prospects Preller opted not to trade this offseason after the GM parted ways with a lot of the organization's young talent to revamp the Padres' roster. Here's a breakdown of his offseason transactions.
The prospect was excited to get the call, even after he was pranked by his Triple-A manager just before receiving the news.