The Detroit Tigers spent most of the off-season telling people they didn’t have the financial flexibility to add another free agent on a 9-figure contract. They already have Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander on the books for more than $200 million total, then added starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann from the Nationals for $110.
But apparently the Motor City Kitties have more cash than they’ve been letting on.
Detroit has reportedly agreed to a 6-year, $132 million contract with former Padres outfielder Justin Upton (pending a physical). Upton, who went to the All-Star game in his lone season in San Diego, was the biggest fish remaining on the free agent market.
Upton gives Detroit another guy with 30-homer potential in the outfield, but it could have an even bigger impact on the Padres. San Diego extended a qualifying offer to Upton (which he declined) so the Tigers have to surrender a draft pick to the Padres.
Add that to the pick the Friars received from the Royals when Kansas City signed Ian Kennedy and Padres General Manager A.J. Preller will likely have five picks in the first 75 selections in the 2015 MLB Draft.
That is the kind of bounty that can either build a team in to a contender or sink it for missing on a golden opportunity. The Padres know first-hand how it can happen because they’ve seen arguably the best and worst single-team drafts in MLB history.
The best is probably the 1968 Los Angeles Dodgers, who took … in one draft, mind you … Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Davey Lopes, Bobby Valentine, Geoff Zahn, Joe Ferguson, Tom Paciorek and a guy who had success with another club named Bill Buckner.
That group, especially the trio of Garvey, Cey and Lopes, helped the Dodgers rule the National League West for a decade. While they were together L.A. only finished with a losing record one time.
On the other side of the coin you have the Padres themselves. Look back to the 2007 draft when San Diego had six of the first 64 picks. Here’s how they used them in order (overall pick in parenthesis):
(23) Nick Schmidt, LHP, Arkansas
(40) Kellen Kulbacki, OF, James Madison
(46) Drew Cumberland, SS, Pace HS in Florida
(57) Mitch Canham, C, Oregon St.
(63) Cory Luebke, LHP, Ohio St.
(64) Danny Payne, OF, Georgia Tech
Of those only Luebke ever spent a single day in the Major Leagues and his promising career was derailed by a pair of Tommy John surgeries. The lack of impact players from that class has certainly contributed to the Padres lack of success recently.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the guys the Padres had a chance to draft instead of that sinister six include RHP Rick Porcello, 3B Todd Frazier and 3B Josh Donaldson. Odds are they passed on the last two guys two years before that they took Chase Headley and figured the Hot Corner was taken care of already.
The amateur draft is, especially in baseball, basically a form of legalized gambling. Unless you’re grabbing a Ken Griffey Jr. or Bryce Harper it’s almost impossible to know if a kid is going to make it or not. Shoot, 20-something teams passed on Mike Trout.
The Padres have a very unique opportunity this June. If they can hit on even a few picks, we could see the makings of a dynasty. Just ask the Yankees how that works. In 1990 New York had 74 draft picks. Only seven of them ever wore a Yankees uniform.
But two of them were named Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada.
Two years later the Yankees had 50 selections. Of those only three made it to Yankee Stadium. But one of them was named Derek Jeter.
Three guys out of 124 picks were the bulk of the reason New York won five rings. It doesn’t take a perfect draft to be a contender. All it takes is finding a couple of perfect picks to make magic happen.
