Even though he has never caught even half of the games in a season, the Padres view Nick Hundley as a team mainstay.
The catcher's leadership abilities played a large part in convincing the Padres to award him with a three-year, $9 million deal. The team also holds a $5 million option for the 2015 season.
The deal runs through Hundley's first potential year of free agency.
"Nick has developed into one of our club's core players," general manager Josh Byrnes said. "He impacts the game on both offense and defense and has evolved into a leader on the field and in the clubhouse."
Manager Bud Black added, "Catching is a tough, demanding position, and Nick has checked off a lot of boxes. Experience is the best teacher and that really holds true at that position."
Hundley, 28, matched his career high by catching 76 games last year. He missed a month due to a ribcage strain and another month due to an elbow strain. However, he ended the year hitting .288 with a .347 on-base percentage and a .477 slugging percentage all career highs. Hundley also hit a career-best nine homers and drove in 29 runs.
He batted .307 at Petco Park, the fourth-best single-season mark in the eight-year-old facility, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
OF Carlos Quentin is scheduled to undergo arthroscopic right knee surgery Monday, and he could miss four to six weeks.
Quentin, 29, felt inflammation in his right knee early in spring training. He told reporters Saturday that he opted to have the routine surgery now to potentially avoid a more serious injury later.
"Spring training days can substitute for rehab days so I can get on the field as fast as possible and play games that do count," he said. "My other option involved trying to manage it. Knowing any type of slide or blunt-force trauma to the knee could re-aggravate it and miss an unforeseeable amount of games, this decision is made with the hope no games will be missed once the knee is healthy."
Quentin said he hoped to return on the early side of the range, which could have him back by mid-April. The Padres open the regular season April 5.
The Padres reduced their camp roster from 60 to 46 last week. Optioned to Class AAA Tucson were RHP Nick Vincent, LHP Josh Spence and OF Blake Tekotte. Optioned to Class AA San Antonio were LHPs Jose DePaula and Juan Pablo Oramas, RHP Erik Hamren and 3B Edinson Rincon. Optioned to Class A Lake Elsinore was OF Rymer Liriano. Sent to the minor league camp for reassignment C Jason Hagerty, LHP Robbie Erlin, RHPs Cory Burns and Jorge Reyes, 2B Cory Spangenberg and Cs Ali Solis and Eddy Rodriguez.
INF Drew Cumberland, who was attempting a comeback in the Padres minor league camp after not playing since the middle of the 2010 season, has retired. Once the Padres leading middle infield prospect, Cumberland missed all the 2011 season with vertigo-like symptoms caused by a bilateral inner ear problem. After a solid start in his comeback bid, the symptoms returned and Cumberland announced his retirement.
OF Chris Denorfia had nine at-bats in two minor league games March 15 and 16 as he battles back from a lower back issue that has sidelined him from the start of spring training. Denorfia, who was penciled in as a platoon-like part-time starter in right with Will Venable, has yet to play in the field.
The Padres walking wounded at the moment: C Nick Hundley (pain in the side, but not an oblique strain), 2B Orlando Hudson (mild right groin strain), LF Carlos Quentin (right knee soreness), Rincon (sore left foot), Vincent (sprained his ankle stepping on a ball in the bullpen while warming up), Erlin (mild left oblique strain), RHP Matt Palmer (mild hamstring strain).
INF Logan Forsythe will open the season on the disabled list and miss around eight week after having surgery to remove the fractured sesamoid bone from behind the toe on his left foot. He had the same surgery to his right foot while in college. Forsythe was challenging Logan Forsythe for the utility infield spot on the Opening Day roster.
Two of the Padres leading hitters this spring are projected minor leaguers OF Jaff Decker (.357, 10-for-28 with five doubles and two homers) and 1B-OF Matt Clark (.467, 7-for-15 with two homers). Of the 25-year-old Clark, who was passed over in the Rule 5 draft last December, Black said: "Clark's been under the radar," said Black. "But he's hit at every step of the ladder. He's opening some eyes." Said Clark's Class AAA manager Terry Kennedy: "I don't think you can ignore offense like that. He's a straight pull hitter with good power and good hands. He knows how to look for pitches he can drive."
RHP Dustin Moseley had an at-bat this week for the first time since he had surgery last season to repair his left shoulder capsule after he twice suffered temporary dislocations while swinging the bat. He took one good cut and missed before walking on a full-count pitch. "I was a little tentative to how I'd feel after hitting in the cage," said Moseley. "Three weeks ago, I don't know if I could have done that."
RHP Casey Kelly pitched for the third time over the last two springs against the Reds at Cincinnati's Goodyear base. The assignment allows Kelly's dad to see his son pitch. Pat Kelly is the Reds Rookie League manager at Billings, Mont. "It was cool to pitch and have my dad watching," said Kelly. "Because our seasons are the same, he doesn't get many chances to see me."
BY THE NUMBERS: 4 Minor league RHP Joe Wieland was the first Padre to pitch four innings this spring, beating RHP Dustin Moseley by a day.
QUOTE TO NOTE:
"There is a little concern. He's not progressing to the point where we know when he's going to get into a game. It takes time to get game ready." Padres manager Bud Black of the possibility of OF Chris Denorfia opening the season on the disabled list.
