The Padres announced that infielder Sung-Mun Song has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A El Paso. He began the season on the IL due to a right oblique strain and had remained there until this transaction.
Song, 29, spent most of the past decade as a regular in the KBO League in South Korea. He was posted for MLB clubs in the offseason and landed with the Padres, securing a $15MM guarantee on a four-year deal.
It’s unusual for players signed to eight-figure, multi-year free agent deals to be optioned to the minors, but there are some unique circumstances at play here. Most players who sign such deals are MLB veterans who reached free agency by getting to six years of service time. Such players can’t be optioned to the minors without their consent. Players coming over from leagues in other countries will sometimes have language in their contracts giving them the same ability to veto minor league assignments. In this case, it appears that Song doesn’t have such protection.
It’s also possible the Padres want Song to get regular reps in the minors, as opposed to being in a part-time role in the big leagues. He suffered his oblique injury way back in January, before spring training games even began. He did eventually get into eight Cactus League contests but then the oblique issue flared up again, leading to his IL stint. He began a rehab assignment shortly after Opening Day, on March 27th. Rehab assignments for position players come with a 20-day maximum, so the Friars had to make a decision on him.
Adding Song would have likely meant designating someone for assignment. Of their 13 position players, the only three with options are Jackson Merrill, Freddy Fermin and Gavin Sheets. Those three are all regular parts of the lineup and wouldn’t be candidates for a stint in the minors. A bench player like Bryce Johnson, Ty France or Nick Castellanos would need the DFA treatment to squeeze in Song.
The Friars could have gone that route, especially with Castellanos and Johnson struggling, but Song hasn’t exactly been forcing the issue. He has been drawing walks on his rehab assignment but hasn’t been hitting the ball with authority. Of his 16 hits, only two of them have been for extra bases, both doubles. His .276/.364/.310 slash line translates to a 78 wRC+ in the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League. He hit 26 homers in the KBO last year and 19 the year prior, so he should be capable of more than that.
There’s also the fact that the Padres are expanding Song’s versatility. In the KBO, he played the three non-shortstop positions. The Friars are getting him some action at second, third and shortstop. They had also considered him for some outfield work, though they put that plan on ice while Song was dealing with the oblique injury and he hasn’t yet played any outfield for El Paso.
Even if the Padres made space for Song in the big leagues, he wouldn’t find a ton of playing time behind the regular infield of third baseman Manny Machado, shortstop Xander Bogaerts and second baseman Jake Cronenworth, especially since they seem willing to play Fernando Tatis Jr. at second base from time to time.
Add it all up and there’s logic to the decision. Song can get regular playing time for El Paso, which will hopefully wake up his bat while also getting him more exposure to shortstop. Perhaps they will revisit the idea of the outfield experiment. The big league club, meanwhile, can hang onto everyone currently on the roster.
One thing that isn’t at play is service time manipulation. Most contracts for players coming from Japan or South Korea contain language making it clear that the player will be a free agent when the contract expires, regardless of major league service time. That is indeed the case for Song’s deal with the Padres, per Ronald Blum of The Associated Press.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
