The Padres have signed the first baseman Trenton Brooks to a minor league deal, according to his statement Transaction tracker at MLB.com. He is also expected to receive an invite to Major League spring training.
The 29-year-old Brooks has a long minor league track record that showcases his strong plate discipline. over the last four years, he made 1,691 plate appearances on the farm with a 13.8% walk rate and 16.4% strikeout rate, both of which were well above average. However, he only managed 55 home runs during that stretch, a fairly low number for a first baseman. Still, that resulted in a combined batting line of .279/.383/.470 and 119 wRC+ for that stretch.
He finally accomplished this in a major league debut in 2024, although he ultimately received a very limited opportunity from the Giants. He was on the 40-man team for less than a month, appearing in 12 games and slashing just .120/.241/.120 in his 29 plate appearances. He was cut from the roster entirely due to unclaimed waivers and ultimately elected free agency at the end of the season.
The Padres have Luis Arraez And Jake Cronenworth as options at first base, but Cronenworth could cover second base if Xander Bogaerts will move back to shortstop with Ha Seong Kim now a free agent. The club doesn't have an obvious designated hitter at the moment, so there is room for another hitter in the lineup. Arráez is also a speculative trade candidate as he enters his final year as the club's leader MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz Next year's salary is projected to be a hefty $14.6 million, a hefty outlay for a club with well-known budget constraints.
Brooks can give the club some upper-level depth at the position and try to force his way back into the majors. If he can do that and have more success this time, he'll still have all the options and only a handful of days of service. This means he can be retained cheaply into the future, which would be attractive to any club, but perhaps even more so to the Friars as they have had to cut their payroll recently.
