Padres sign veteran shortstop to minor league deal

The Padres are signing veteran shortstop Jose Iglesias to a minor league deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Iglesias had just opted out of a contract with the Marlins last week.

Iglesias spent the 2022 campaign with the Rockies. He played in 118 games and tallied 467 trips to the plate as Colorado’s primary shortstop, hitting .292/.328/.380 with a meager 12% strikeout rate. Iglesias demonstrated continued excellent contact skills and a similar overall offensive profile as he’s shown throughout his career. He typically runs high batting averages without a ton of power or many walks. In a little more than 4,000 MLB plate appearances, the Cuba native is a .279/.319/.382 hitter.

That offense was more than reasonable while Iglesias was playing a Gold Glove-caliber shortstop early in his career. Public metrics have soured on his glove since he’s gotten into his 30s. Statcast has pegged him as a league-average defender in each of the past two seasons. Defensive runs saved, meanwhile, has graded him a staggering 26 runs worse than average at the position since the start of the 2021 campaign.

As a result, he’s been limited to successive non-roster deals with Miami and now San Diego. Iglesias stuck in the Marlins organization for a couple of weeks after failing to crack the roster out of spring training. He didn’t appear in a Triple-A game before triggering his opt-out, though. He’ll presumably join the Padres’ top affiliate in El Paso in the coming days.

Despite the dip in his defensive marks, Iglesias brings more than 4,000 MLB innings of shortstop experience to the organization. The Friars already have Xander Bogaerts, Ha-Seong Kim and perhaps Fernando Tatis Jr. as options to play shortstop in the majors. Iglesias adds a veteran as injury insurance and could perhaps branch out to other infield spots in El Paso.