San Diego officially announced on the 27th (Korean time) that it had signed veteran shortstop Jose Iglesias (33) to a minor league contract. This news came as quite a surprise to those who knew the San Diego infield.
Iglesias is a veteran infielder who debuted in Boston in 2011 and played for 11 years in the major leagues, going through Detroit, Cincinnati, Baltimore, LA Angels and Colorado. He primarily played shortstop, and can also play second base. He was a member of Detroit, and in 2015 he built a pretty brilliant career to the extent that he was even selected as an All-Star. During his 11 years, the number of appearances reached 1096.
He is, of course, evaluated to be inferior to his prime, but he played 137 games in 2021 and 118 games last year with Colorado. Of course, the scoring production is lower than the league average, but it is not to the level of a ‘hole’ enough to record a batting average of 0.292 last year. However, he was no longer available in Colorado, and eventually San Diego embraced him.
San Diego is rich in shortstops. He once had one of the league’s best offensive shortstops in Fernando Tatis Jr. Ahead of the 2021 season, he signed a four-year contract with Ha-Sung Kim. And ahead of this season, he signed a large 11-year, $290 million contract with Xander Bogarts, and acquired a shortstop again. Even if Manny Machado, “former shortstop,” is pushed back, Jake Cronenworth could be at shortstop in an emergency.
Despite Tatis Jr.’s move to the outfield, there are many speculations about San Diego’s contract with Iglesias, which has clear shortstops in Bogatz and Kim Ha-sung. The most persuasive theory is ‘insurance’. Injuries to key players can happen at any time, so adding an experienced shortstop is a good preparation.
Iglesias can play second base as well as shortstop. It can also be seen that Kim Ha-seong, who plays a similar role in the team, has a strong insurance personality. On the one hand, CJ Abrams moved to Washington at the time of the Juan Soto trade, and minor league shortstops still have some time left before being promoted to the major leagues. 크크크벳
However, on the local fan site, an interesting hypothesis is raised that San Diego played ahead of the LA Dodgers, who are having trouble clearing the shortstop position. The Dodgers, whose two best shortstops in the league, Corey Seager (Texas) and Trey Turner (Philadelphia), left the team one after another with a one-year gap, originally planned to leave Gavin Lux as the shortstop. However, the situation became urgent when Lux injured his knee during an exhibition game and was out for the season.
Although they recruited Miguel Rojas, they were silent due to injuries and sluggishness at the beginning of the season. In the end, we can read the Dodgers’ worries as they are continuing an unconventional experiment of moving Mookie Betts to shortstop.
Sports Illustrated (SI) introduced these fans’ hypotheses on the 27th and said, ‘This move is obviously surprising because the position that San Diego does not need is shortstop. “For a position that no longer requires depth, I can’t help but wonder why the Padres made this move,” he said. What (fans) guessed could be a pretty interesting story,’ he pointed out the current situation.
Meanwhile, SI said, “Iglesias was potentially linked to the Dodgers, but the Dodgers did not show interest.” The Dodgers will either have to continue examining internal options or look at trade markets with interesting candidates,’ he predicted.