MLB Draft Deep Dive: San Diego Padres

In order to satisfy my innate curiosity as it pertains to the MLB Draft, I have taken a comprehensive look at the 2018 draft for each of the 30 MLB organizations. But I also wanted to get an idea of what each of the teams had done for the 20 years prior so that is included as a prelude to the 2018 information. I'll be looking first at each team in each division, starting with the National League East, and then I'll follow up with a an overall look at both the historical draft results to date and the early 2018 results.

My goal is to get a better idea of the big picture as to how the systems compare in terms of draft results, as well as how a good or bad draft class affects a system, the overall impact of the draft on the baseball talent pool and the circuitous ways in which draft picks are used to bolster a system for which they may never even play. This project is just a first step. I intend to expand on this information over time (including a later revisit of the 2018 class and the addition of the 2019 class next offseason) and I will share my findings as I do so.

NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST

SAN DIEGO PADRES

Historical Draft Results from 1998 through 2017 (TO DATE)
Drafted 912 | Signed 623 | Pitchers Signed 306 | Position Players Signed 317
Total WAR 282.3
Total Players to MLB 118

Note: The following players are listed at the position at which they were originally drafted.

1998 | 7 to MLB | WAR 12.7 | High WAR 8.0, RHP Brian Lawrence, 17th rd
1999 | 4 to MLB | WAR 37.4 | High WAR 39.6, RHP Jake Peavy, 15th rd
2000 | 6 to MLB | WAR 3.4 | High WAR 3.8, 3B Xavier Nady, 2nd rd
2001 | 4 to MLB | WAR 22.2 | High WAR 18.3, SS Jason Bartlett, 13th rd
2002 | 5 to MLB | WAR 10.7 | High WAR 8.5, SS Khalil Greene, 1st rd
2003 | 6 to MLB | WAR 3.8 | High WAR 3.7, RHP Tim Stauffer, 1st rd
2004 | 5 to MLB | WAR 10.4 | High WAR 4.4, RHP Brandon Kintzler, 40th rd
2005 | 8 to MLB | WAR 46.0 | High WAR 26.1, 3B Chase Headley, 2nd rd
2006 | 7 to MLB | WAR 32.6 | High WAR 15.7, 3B David Freese, 9th rd
2007 | 10 to MLB | WAR 38.3 | High WAR 33.6, RHP Corey Kluber, 4th rd
2008 | 14 to MLB | WAR 20.9 | High WAR 12.7, 3B Logan Forsythe, 1st rd
2009 | 6 to MLB | WAR 1.4 | High WAR 3.6, RHP Miles Mikolos, 7th rd
2010 | 6 to MLB | WAR 12.2 | High WAR 10.9, 2B Jedd Gyorko, 2nd rd
2011 | 11 to MLB | WAR 6.3 | High WAR 3.9, RHP Joe Ross, 1st rd
2012 | 5 to MLB | WAR 10.4 | High WAR 6.2, OF Mallex Smith, 5th rd
2013 | 6 to MLB | WAR 4.8 | High WAR 3.7, OF Hunter Renfroe, 1st rd
2014 | 2 to MLB | WAR 10.8 | High WAR 10.4, SS Trea Turner, 1st rd
2015 | 4 to MLB | WAR (2.2) | High WAR 0.1, RHP Trey Wingenter, 17th rd
2016 | 2 to MLB | WAR 0.2 | High WAR 0.5, LHP Joey Lucchesi, 4th rd
2017 | 0 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR N/A

The highest WAR to date is that of RHP Jake Peavy (1999, 15th round, 39.6 WAR). Peavy played for the Padres for eight seasons, earning two All-Star nods and the National League Cy Young Award in 2007, before being traded to the White Sox in July 2009. Peavy was named an All-Star for the third time in 2012 while with the White Sox and won World Series hardware in 2013 (Boston) and 2014 (Giants) before hanging it up at the end of the 2016 season.

The total high WAR to date is from 2005, with 3B Chase Headley (2nd round, 26.1 WAR), OF Will Venable (7th round, 12.5 WAR) and C Nick Hundley (2nd round, 7.2 WAR) the most productive members of the class. All three of these players spent several years playing for the Padres, providing San Diego with a solid return on the draft.

2018 DRAFT
41 Drafted | 29 Signed | 16 Pitchers | 13 Position Players
20 College | 19 Signed | 10 Pitchers | 9 Position Players
3 JC/CC | 1 Signed | 1 Pitcher | 0 Position Players
18 HS/NS | 9 Signed | 5 Pitcher | 4 Position Players

Notable: The Padres received one additional draft pick for Competitive Balance (Round A) and one additional draft pick for Competitive Balance (Round B) as well through a trade with the Twins, but forfeited their second round pick by signing free agent 1B Eric Hosmer. San Diego failed to sign three of their top 20 picks with the top holdout being 13th round Illinois HS LHP Antoine Kelly.

PITCHERS
Of the 16 pitchers signed (9 RHP, 7 LHP), all but three logged at least some playing time. Seven of the pitchers were promoted beyond the Short Season A* level (five to Full Season A and two to Advanced A). Two debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Padres, one as a Top 10 prospect.

Top Prospects

🔟 LHP Ryan Weathers, 1st round, Loretta HS (TN), A
18.1 IP | 7 G / 7 GS | 3.44 ERA | 1.255 WHIP | 4 BB : 18 K

RHP Dylan Coleman, 4th round, Missouri State University, A
22.2 IP | 18 G / 0 GS | 3.18 ERA | 1.368 WHIP | 11 BB : 29 K | 4 Saves

🔟 Top 10 Prospect

Noteworthy Debut

RHP Gabe Mosser, 27th round, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, A
42.1 IP | 19 G / 0 GS | 1.70 ERA | 1.039 WHIP | 10 BB : 59 K

In total, the Padres 2018 Draft pitchers combined for a 4.09 ERA and a 1.345 WHIP over 297.1 innings as compared to the 3.67 ERA and 1.299 WHIP (average of 376.2 innings per affiliate) compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

POSITION PLAYERS
All 13 position players signed (2 1B, 2 2B, 3B, 2 SS, 5 OF, C) logged at least some playing time. Two were promoted beyond the Short Season A* level (one to Full Season A and one to Advanced A). Three of the position players debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Padres.

Top Prospects

SS Xavier Edwards (S/R), 1st round, North Broward Prep HS (FL), SSA
45 G | .346/.453/.409/.862 | 31 BB : 25 K | 22 SB : 1 CS

OF Grant Little (R/R), 2nd round, Texas Tech University, SSA
39 G | .262/.351/.315/.666 | 20 BB : 28 K

SS Owen Miller (R/R), 3rd round, Illinois State University, A
75 G | .336/.386/.460/.846 | 19 BB : 41 K | 19 2B / 3 3B / 4 HR

Noteworthy Debut

1B Nick Gatewood (L/R), 11th round, Georgia State University, SSA
60 G | .275/.315/.429/.744 | 14 BB : 59 K | 20 2B / 3B / 5 HR
(Gatewood played most of his games at DH)

In total, the Padres 2018 Draft position players combined to hit .264/.349/.379/.728 as compared to .261/.349/.386/.735 batting line compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

*Notes on players include the highest level achieved for the 2018 season using the following abbreviations:
Rk = Rookie
SSA = Short Season A
A = Full Season A
A+ = Full Season A Advanced

GENERAL NOTES: Information was obtained from Baseball-Reference and the MLB Draft History site. The occasional discrepancy in historical information was resolved to the best of my ability by delving into the player information available on B-R. On the historical information, the player position in the totals reflects the position at which the player was drafted (and not any subsequent change of position). On the 2018 information, the player position reflects the primary position played in 2018 for all players who were signed and the position at which the player was drafted for those who did not sign. Prospect listings on MLB Pipeline were as of late December and may not reflect any subsequent changes to that site.

PREVIOUSLY

NL EAST
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals
NL East 2018 Draft Summary

NL CENTRAL
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
NL Central 2018 Draft Summary

NL WEST
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers

COMING NEXT
San Francisco Giants