Andy’s Address, 3/2
Andy Addresses Christian Villanueva, Luis Perdomo, Jose Pirela, Robbie Erlin
By Bill Center
Freddy Galvis played all 162 games for the Philadelphia Phillies last season and has averaged 157 games played over the past three seasons.
The 27-year-old is not the type of player needing a lot of rest.
Which has led Padres manager Andy Green to an interesting thought. What about having third baseman Christian Villanueva double as the backup shortstop.
Green discussed the possibility Friday morning during his daily media session before Villanueva went out and hit a two-run double in his first at-bat against the Kansas City Royals at Peoria.
“In the non-traditional sense, Villanueva is probably the main guy I’m looking at and considering as the backup shortstop,” said Green.
“Swinging the bat like he has so far, that’s a good start,” continued Green. “We’ll expose him to some other spots on the field and see what he looks like in those situations.”
Villanueva was 2-for-2 with a double, a homer and a walk Friday as the Padres defeated Kansas City 13–5 at Peoria for their fourth win plus a tie in their last five games. Villanueva is now 9-for-16 in spring exhibitions with two doubles, three homers and 10 RBIs. He has a 1.125 slugging percentage and a 1.688 OPS.
Villanueva wasn’t the only Padre to tee-off Friday as they had 20 hits.
Catcher Austin Hedges was 2-for-3 with a walk and his Cactus League-leading fourth homer. Hedges and Villanueva hit the second set of Padres’ back-to-back homers this spring. Manuel Margot, Wil Myers, Jose Pirela and Luis Urías also had two hits apiece.
Starting pitcher Bryan Mitchell allowed a hit and a walk with a strikeout in two scoreless innings.
Returning to Villanueva, Green said:
“Nobody is looking at him to be a Gold Glove backup shortstop. But we’ll take a look to see if he can man the position and offer us a little bit of versatility in extreme situations if we chose not to go with a traditional backup shortstop.”
“Freddy is going to run out there pretty much every single day. At some point you have to have a guy when you’re winning by a touchdown or two or losing by a touchdown or two to take those innings off of Freddy’s plate. We have to find out if Villanueva is capable of doing that. I don’t think he’s going to shy away from that. I think he wants to be on the Major League roster. And he’s swinging the bat like he wants to.”
“I think Cory Spangenberg would gladly go over there if I asked him to. I don’t have the inclination to ask him to right now because I want to watch Christian in that role. I don’t see Carlos Asuaje doing that. Obviously, you get past those guys and you start talking about traditional guys like Dusty Coleman who can flat out defend the field if we go that route. Villanueva has no history at shortstop.”
“We went to (Yangervis) Solarte last year playing short and nobody looked at Soly as a shortstop. We played him far more than we’d be looking to play Freddy Galvis’ backup. So if it turns into Christian or turns into somebody else, it’s just basically eating innings in a blowout. To me, if Freddy looks to need more than one day off at any point in time, that would probably warrant a roster move if we didn’t have a traditional guy. You kind of go into it seeing what kind of flexibility Freddy’s durability provides you.”
Green talked about Luis Perdomo, Robbie Erlin and Colin Rea, who pitched in the B game Thursday on a back field. It was the first outing for Erlin and Rea, each of whom missed all of the 2017 season after having “Tommy John” elbow reconstruction surgery in 2016.
“Perdomo had a much better second inning,” said Green. “He’s been working on some things and often you put a guy in the B game setting when he’s working on things and he thinks more about the work than the compete factor. I thought Perdomo’s ‘compete’ was a little bit low in the first inning. He wasn’t locked into just firing through his pitches and he was trying to place them a little bit. As he got past that first inning, he was fine, he was his normal self. It’s to be expected, that first outing of spring when you’ve been very intensive with work in spring training.”
“Mainly for him, it’s keeping his fastball in the lanes that he wants them to stay in. When he goes away and stays away, he’s very effective. When he comes in and stays in, he’s very effective. When he goes away and the pitch leaks, that’s where all his damage typically comes from. If he’s going to the outside lane to a righty, he has to drive that pitch to that lane. When he’s going in, he has to drive it with intent. That’s the main thing he is working on. Sometimes when you’re talking about that and pushing that, sometimes guys start to try to place the baseball when they get in the first game rather than rip through it and trust the work you’ve done up until now is going to show up into the game. We just saw that yesterday, which is the right setting to see that in. Honestly it’s not a big deal at all.”
Of Erlin and Rea, Green said:
“I locked in a little more on Robbie than Colin because I had to get to the other game when Rea was on the mound. Erlin was good. Good shape to his breaking ball, good angle to his fastball. Once he opens hitters up with that fastball in, it’s a nice changeup away. I thought he was pitching. For a guy coming off surgery, he was solid. I saw the first batter Colin punched out. I heard the second inning was a little bit more of a struggle than the first. They came out feeling good, that’s the most important thing.”
Green said Alex Dickerson is behind because of his sore elbow.
“He hasn’t been on the field in a year and change and he needs these at-bats and it’s been kind of a slow process with the elbow right now,” said Green. “Hopefully he is out there soon. We’re talking about getting him back into drills on Sunday or Monday, but that is tentative right now.”
Green said there has been no time set for when Tatis and Gabriel Arias might head to the minor league camp.
“We haven’t talked about the specific send down dates for anyone at this point in time, much past (pitcher) Miguel Diaz (who was sent down Tuesday). “I thought it was best for Diaz to get cranking on some of the things we wanted him to work on outside of the spotlight . . . more for his growth than anything else.”
“I think there’s lot to be gained by being exposed to the veterans we have here, so we like them in camp. But there’s also a lot to be gained when it’s time to be sent down and get to work and start your season. We’ll sort through that in the coming weeks. I don’t think we have a specific date in mind now.”
Green also had thoughts on Margot, Eric Hosmer, Pirela and Kazuhisa Makita.
Green on Margot: “Getting on base is at the top of his list. In his offensive game, that’s where the focus always is . . . get this guy in a mindset to go out and score 100 runs. To score 100 runs, it means you are going to have to get on base and be an instigator at the top of the lineup. He’s got some work to do on the basepaths to stealing bases, which he can continue to improve on. Outfield-wise he’s pretty solid. There’s been some work with him on catching balls one-handed when he’s on a dead sprint. He has a tendency to try to use two hands at all times. You lose some athleticism and length when you do that.”
Green on Hosmer: “Part of the draw to him was the professionalism and the love of baseball, the curious mind that wants to get better still. He possesses all of those things. He’s elevated the atmosphere here really quickly with his presence. He’s elevated the level of expectations. He’s been a fun guy to be around.”
Green on Pirela, who started in left Friday: “We’re striking a balance (between left and second base) as best we can. Jose’s getting primary at-bats in the outfield right now. But he’ll bounce back into second pretty quickly, probably start a game at second base on split the squad day. He’s back and forth. His at-bats are good, which isn’t surprising.”
Green on Makita: “He’ll pitch in one of the split squad games (March 4). Carter Capps will also pitch at home that day.”
