The Padres announced that pitcher Song of Sung-Mun he was returned to the 10-day disabled list and optioned to Triple-A El Paso. He started the season in IL because of a right oblique strain and has been there until this is done.
Song, 29, spent most of the last decade as a regular in the KBO League in South Korea. He was traded to MLB clubs at the start of the season and landed with the Padres, earning $15MM guaranteed on a four-year contract.
It’s not uncommon for players who sign eight-year free-agent deals to be drafted in the minors, but there are different circumstances at play here. Most of the players who sign such deals are MLB veterans who reached free agency with six years of service time. Such players cannot be selected for minors without their consent. Players from foreign leagues will sometimes have language in their contracts that gives them the same ability to block minor league assignments. In this case, it appears that the Song has no such protection.
It’s also possible that the Padres want Song to get regular reps in the minors, instead of being a part-time player in the big leagues. He suffered a serious injury back in January, before spring training began. He ended up making it to eight Cactus League tournaments but the problem resurfaced, leading him to participate in the IL. He began rehab work shortly after Opening Day, on March 27th. Rehab assignments for position players come with a maximum of 20 days, so the Friars had to make a decision on him.
Adding a Song would probably mean assigning someone an assignment. Of the 13 players in the position, only three have options Jackson Merrill, Freddy Fermin again Gavin Sheets. Those three are all regular parts of the list and would not be candidates for baby time. A bench player like him Bryce Johnson, France or Nick Castellanos will require DFA treatment to compress into Song.
The Friars could have gone that way, especially with Castellanos and Johnson struggling, but Song wasn’t forcing the issue. He had been drawing a trip to his rehab assignment but he wasn’t hitting it with authority. Of his 16 hits, only two of them were for extra bases, both of which were doubles. His .276/.364/.310 line translates to a 78 wRC+ in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He hit 26 homers in the KBO last year and 19 the year before, so he should be able to surpass that.
There’s also the fact that the Padres are increasing Song’s synergy. In the KBO, he played three non-stop positions. The Friars get him something at second, third and shortstop. They also considered him for some outside work, though they put that plan on hold while Song dealt with an oblique injury and hadn’t played any El Paso pitches.
Even if the Padres were to make room for Song in the big leagues, he wouldn’t get a ton of playing time behind the regular third baseman. Manny Machadoa shot Xander Bogaerts and second baseman Jake Cronenworthespecially since they seem willing to play Fernando Tatis Jr. at second base occasionally.
Put it all together and make sense of the decision. Song could get regular playing time for El Paso, which would wake up his bat while giving him more exposure at shortstop. Maybe they will revisit the idea of external testing. The big league club, on the other hand, can hold on to everyone on the current roster.
One thing that doesn’t play is to manipulate the service time. Most contracts for players from Japan or South Korea contain language that makes it clear that the player will be a free agent when the contract expires, regardless of the length of his major league career. That’s certainly the case with Song’s deal with the Padres, according to Ronald Blum of the Associated Press.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
