Former All-Star opts out of contract with Padres

Veteran infielder José Iglesias has opted out of his minor league deal with the Padres, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link). Assuming San Diego doesn’t add him to the MLB roster, he’ll return to free agency.

It’s familiar territory for Iglesias. He followed a similar path with the Marlins a few months ago, opting out after signing a minor league pact in spring training. He caught on with the Padres, triggered an opt-out a month later, then re-signed on a new minor league deal with San Diego.

Iglesias is still searching for his first MLB call of the year. He got to the highest level in 11 of the 12 seasons between 2011-2022. Iglesias carved out a lengthy career as a regular thanks to excellent shortstop defense and a high-contact bat that allowed him to run strong batting averages. His public defensive marks have dropped over the past two seasons, though, contributing to his struggles to find an MLB look thus far in 2023.

To his credit, the 33-year-old had a nice offensive showing in Triple-A. He appeared in 28 games for San Diego’s highest affiliate in El Paso and hit .317/.356/.537 with four home runs over 135 trips to the plate. The power is probably inflated by the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League setting—Iglesias hit only three homers in 467 plate appearances for the Rockies last season—but he has continued to put the ball in play at a high rate. He went down on strikes in only 16.3% of his trips with El Paso.

Iglesias has played almost exclusively shortstop at the big league level, logging over 8000 career innings there. He spent most of his time there in Triple-A but logged a few starts at both second and third base as well. He’s no longer the defender he was at his peak, but he can cover any infield position and still hits for a high enough average he should at least find another minor-league deal elsewhere.