San Diego Padres Top Ten: Benito’s bandwagon
By Tab Bamford
The franchise’s name, San Diego Padres, pays tribute to the Spanish presence in California historically. From its entry as an expansion team in 1969, the Padres roster, however, did not serve as a showcase of Latino talent until the late 1980s. It was in that decade that the organization’s scouting efforts in Latin America, and especially in Puerto Rico, began to yield a bounty of talented players.
Future All-Stars began to flourish that decade. Notable among them was catcher Benito Santiago, 1987 NL Rookie of the Year who would represent the Padres at four All-Star games. Then there were those talented young Latinos—most notably, Roberto Alomar, Ozzie Guillén, Sandy Alomar, Jr., and Carlos Baerga—that the Padres traded away in the late 1980s and early 1990s to acquire established stars such as Fred McGriff, Tony Fernández, LaMarr Hoyt, and Joe Carter. After Benito Santiago’s 1992 departure, Padres fans would have to wait until 2008 and the arrival of Adrián González to see another Latino representing the Padres at an All-Star game.
A reminder of how we determined the Top 10 list. We focused strictly on the time these players spent with the Padres, not their overall career. To make things simple, we used WAR (as calculated by Baseball-Reference.com) as our metric of choice. And while this is one measure of the impact of these players, you might have your own opinion as to who deserves to higher (or lower) on that team’s Top 10.
So let’s see where your guys landed on the Padres Latino Top 10.
San Diego Padres
1. Adrián González
5 years with San Diego, 20.4 WAR, 3-time All-Star, three Gold Gloves
Mexico
One of the most productive offensive players in Padres’ history, the only two position players with a higher WAR than González while playing in San Diego are in the Hall of Fame (Tony Gwynn and Dave Winfield). His 161 home runs rank second in franchise history and he ranks fourth all-time for the club with 501 runs batted in.
2. Benito Santiago
7 years with San Diego, 14.2 WAR, 1987 NL Rookie of the Year, 4-time All-Star, three Gold Gloves
Puerto Rico
Only Garry Templeton (10.3) and Ozzie Smith (9.1) have a higher Defensive WAR for the Padres than Santiago (8.9), but his career didn’t start off well. Santiago actually led National League catchers in errors and passed balls as a rookie. It didn’t matter to voters, though; he ran away with the Rookie of the Year Award in 1987 thanks to piling up a 34-game hit streak. At the time, that was the longest hitting streak by a catcher in major league history. Santiago won the Silver Slugger Award as the best offensive catcher in the National League in his first season.
3. Roberto Alomar
3 years with San Diego, 12.2 WAR, one All-Star game
Puerto Rico
The Padres had signed Robbie’s older brother, Sandy, so he was excited to join the organization. But Sandy was traded to Cleveland on Dec. 6, 1989 in a deal that didn’t make a ton of noise at the time. Sandy, Carlos Baerga and Chris James were dealt to Cleveland for Joe Carter. Roberto got the moving truck ready 366 days later. Only 448 games into his Hall of Fame career, Roberto was involved in one of the great blockbuster trades of his generation; on Dec. 5, 1990 Carter and the younger Alomar headed to Toronto for Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff.
4. Carmelo Martinez
6 years with San Diego, 9.7 WAR
Puerto Rico
This Carmelo never asked to play for the Knicks, but he did have a couple good years to begin his career in San Diego. He finished sixth in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 1984 after hitting 13 home runs with 66 RBI in 149 games. The best year of his career was 1985, when he hit 21 home runs and knocked in 72.
5. Luis Salazar
7 years with San Diego, 6.7 WAR
Venezuela
Salazar was another player on the Padres in the early 1980s who did a little bit of everything. He hit a career high 14 home runs in 1983 (he later matched that total in 1991 with the Cubs) and stole 93 bases during his time with the Padres.
6. Everth Cabrera
6 years with San Diego, 6.6 WAR, one All-Star Game
Nicaragua
Cabrera was a speed merchant who joined the Padres in 2009 as a 22-year-old. His best season was 2012, when he appeared in a career-high 115 games and led the league with 44 stolen bases. He stole 37 more in 2013 and represented the Padres in the All-Star Game, his only appearance in the mid-summer classic.
7. Sixto Lezcano
2 years with San Diego, 6.3 WAR
Puerto Rico
A slender right fielder who won one gold glove in his career (with Milwaukee), Lezcano was involved in two franchise-altering trades in less than one year. In December 1980 the Brewers dealt him to the Cardinals in the deal that brought Ted Simmons and Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers to Milwaukee. One year later he joined Garry Templeton in the trade that took Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith from San Diego to St. Louis. For his part, Lezcano hit 24 home runs in 235 games with the Padres.
8. Yangervis Solarte
4 years with San Diego, 6.2 WAR
Venezuela
Solarte was traded to Toronto in January of this year to make room for the next generation of infielders in San Diego, including Fernando Tatis, Jr. Between 2015-17 Solarte hit 47 home runs and drove in 198 runs, a solid three-year stretch.
9. Yonder Alonso
4 years with San Diego, 5.7 WAR
Cuba
Manny Machado’s brother-in-law finally got a full-time chance to stay in the majors in 2012 with the Padres, appearing in 155 games. The nine home runs he hit that season were a career high until he exploded for 22 with Oakland last year. Alonso, who played at the University of Miami (Florida), had a .724 OPS in 439 games with the Padres.
10. Quilvio Veras
3 years with San Diego, 5.7 WAR
Dominican Republic
Veras, the only member of San Diego’s 1998 World Series team to make the list, was a terrific leadoff man for the Padres between 1997-1999. He stole 87 bases and scored 248 runs in 415 games with the Padres before he was traded to Atlanta.
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