The Padres Are Letting Them WALK...

Major Padres roster news announced as mutual options have been declined going one way or the other. But are these players players we should look to get back or are they trash and bye-bye? Let's talk about it. Hi, welcome back to another episode of Padres Digest with your host Andrew. Today we're talking about some mutual options. Technically this is from yesterday, but I'm running behind today. So sorry, yell at me. But obviously we saw the Adrian Morehone news. He accepted the qualifying offer. and the free agency market is open so currently these players we're about to talk about are free agents so before we get too deep into it please subscribe as always follow us on the x instagram facebook padres digest so let's just jump into the players and their options so Firstly, Padres declined Miguel Andujar's mutual option. So Miguel Andujar is a free agent. Let's take a look. Let's take a look at his slash line. So he wasn't bad, right? He had some good moments, but then got injured for a while and then just never really was the same. But normally he is a lefty killer, but his lefty OPS was actually worse than his righty OPS. 682 versus 746. The slash line note was fine. 259 average, 303 on base percentage, 423 slug, 726 on base plus slug. His savant numbers, expected batting average of 264. So not great, not bad, better than his regular average, right? Barrel rate wasn't great, not have a lot of barrels. Chase rate means he struck out. Not a lot, it was only 15%, but he did chase a lot of pitches, right? And he only had one home run in 81 appearances against the lefties this year. 2025 versus lefties, he was 987, so this year being 682 is a huge difference. Chase is a lot and only a 4.3% walk rate. Fractured wrist really hurt him because he was out for a long while. And then an $8 million option declined with a $2.9 million buyout. So we paid him $3 million and not play with us anymore, basically. Right, so no more Miguel Andujar. We can still technically re-sign him, right? But the fractured wrist was cool. Oh, fractured wrist was not cool. It was bad. I'm going to say he was hitting cool. He was hitting fine, right? Then the mutual option declined, and now he'll be a free agent at the age of 32. No reunion is possible, but there's no set answer in left field. His lefty history, though. He's been good against lefties, right? Weighted runs created plus 129, 192, 171, but on 2026, I wouldn't say. But it was declining, right? It was declining. So now a left field is pretty much open, right? No set answer. I mean, Luis Ranjifo could have been, but he's also a free agent. So Samad Taylor, maybe. Maybe, uh, So we'll see, right? But reunion is a possible thing. Thank I'm not super opposed to it, but I also want to make sure we explore the market before we come back to Andujar. you I think there's better than Andujar, but I don't know if we can get better than Andujar. for But we should at least try, right? We should at least try. Now, on the other hand, we have everyone's favorite pitchers. listening. Lucas Giolito and Griffin Canning are hitting free agency. Who doesn't love Lucas Gilito and Griffin Canning? So take a look at them. Both of them suck, right? Lucas Gilito was probably our worst pitcher and then Casey Mize came back or not came back, but got traded and then he sucked worse. But a 5'16 ERA, 1.85 whip, which is horrible. Savant expected ERA was actually worse than his regular ERA. Fastball velocity was at 90 miles per hour, barely got any strikeouts, walked a lot of people, got hit pretty hard. Ground ball rate, not that great. So pretty bad, but 2025, you did have a 3-4-1 ERA, but it was super lucky, right? Because his underlying stats just kind of sucked. Right. So with eight million option declined, we paid him one point five million to not come back is, I guess, the way you look at it. But elbow inflammation, seven games, five games started, two major arm surgeries, missed most of twenty twenty six. Honestly, thank God. Now, Griffin Canning, on the other hand. So his ERA wasn't great. Obviously, WIP wasn't good. One point five two. But the pen, he actually wasn't bad. Which is interesting, right? So, as a starter, he sucked. 6.79 ERA in 50.1 innings pitch. But as a pen reliever, 4.23 ERA in 38.1 innings pitch. And he had 8 scoreless innings in a row. 12.2 innings pitch, 12 strikeouts, or 8 scoreless relief appearances is what I meant to say. So, yeah, I mean... The numbers don't look great, and to be honest, I doubt anyone really signs him as a starter. But maybe out of the bullpen as a long reliever, if we can get him for like a Walker Bueller type deal and pay him like the bare minimum, I wouldn't hate a reunion. But still, I don't know, because he does have some he does have. Good pitches that just aren't being executed. So maybe with some more time, they're looking to fix them, but there's no pressure to bring them back. I'm not saying we have to bring them back and I'm okay if we don't, but if we do and we put them in the bullpen again, I wouldn't hate it. You know what I mean? Expected ERA sucked, but was actually getting unlucky a little bit. Fastball velocity around 94, so not horrible. Strikeout percentage, not great around average. Walk percentage, not great. Hard hit percentage, not great. Ground ball percentage, actually pretty good. Kept the ball on the ground about half the time, so fine, right? Okay, cool. Not any kind of players I would really want to re-sign, but for Canning, I wouldn't hate it. I wouldn't hate it. Right? So, we're paying Gialito and Griffin Canning money to not play with us. That's how it works. That's kind of funny, but that's how it works, right? Now, the other one we have, this is a hot take, Padres exercise Kyle Hart club option. I have so many hot takes about Kyle Hart, and I'm fine with that, because I am a Kyle Hart fan, but I will fully admit, is it going to load? Is it going to load? Is it going to load? Okay, hold on one sec. Okay, there we go. So, I know it's a hot take, right? Kyle Hart, option is exercise, so he will be back. So, obviously the ERA doesn't look great, 492 in 2026, worse last year, 586, but, So Vaughn actually says he's a much better pitcher and paints a better picture for who he is. ERA of 492, but the expected ERA is 365, so actually pretty good. Ground ball, lefty, sinker, 32% of the time when he throws that sinker. Chase and whiff, both bottom third. But when he's on, he is getting a lot of whiffs and getting a lot of people to chase, right? He is 33. He'll be 34 later in the month, so 34 next year. The way Kyle Hart is, he had dominant stretches for like a month, right? He dominates for a month, and then for the next month, he does horrendous, and then the next month, he dominated, and then the next month, he did horrendous. So it ended in September when he was doing horrendous, but in August and I think a bit of July, he was really good, and then June was kind of eh. I don't have the exact numbers, but it was something like that, right? He would have very good stretches and then very bad stretches, but then very good stretches. I'm not saying make him a starter, but I really do like Kyle Hart. Now, if you want to say we didn't need Kyle Hart, I wouldn't not agree because we still have Wandi. We still have Yuki, and hopefully we can get Adrian Morejon back. So we would have a lot of lefties in our bullpen. So if you want to make the argument we don't need Kyle Hart, fine, It's fine, but... Like I said, he's a better pitcher than what the numbers on the surface say. If you look below the surface, they should be better, right? And you can take a look at that. We kind of already talked about it. But I, for one, am team, I like Kyle Hart. Now, is he the best pitcher of all time? Obviously not, right? Does everyone think he's worse than he actually is? Yes. But I like Kyle Hart, and I will die on that. So, should the Padres re-sign Giolito or Canning? Well, here's the big problem. We don't really have any pitchers, right? On Duhart declined, Gilito declined, Cannon declined, Kyle Hart, we did get, right? So our needs, we're going to need a lot of starting pitching, right? We're going to need at least two front or middle of rotation starters and one back of the rotation starter. So we only really have Musgrove, hopefully Darvish, Randy Vasquez, JP Sears, like... We're kind of bare. We're kind of barren right now. So I guess the question is, should we bring back Giolito or Canning? Yes, as cheap depth or no spend elsewhere. I kind of gave you my thoughts already, but we are going to need some pitching. And hopefully our checkbooks are nice and open to our new owners. So we'll see what happens, right? But you guys let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. And thank you so much for watching. My computer just froze. Oh, there we go. Thank you so much for watching. Please subscribe as always. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Padres, Digest. Thank you to our channel members. Remember, it's just for awesome bonus features. Have a fantastic, wonderful rest of your day. Goodbye. Bye and bye.