Recently-Released Dodgers Utility Man Already Finds New Home
Former Los Angeles Dodgers minor leaguer Kevin Padlo and the Kansas City Royals agreed to a minor league deal on Wednesday. Padlo will report to Double-A Northwest Arkansas, per the Naturals’ social media account.
Padlo is taking a step back after spending the start of this season in Triple-A with Oklahoma City. However, he struggled to stay consistent. When L.A. released him last week, Padlo was batting .216/.340/.380.
Padlo had better Triple-A numbers in prior years (career .251/.348/.461 slash line at the level), and seemed ready to keep that up in his first year in the Dodgers organization. He had an .845 OPS in 16 Cactus League games (27 at-bats), hitting two home runs and looking like a viable option for a midseason call-up.
The 27-year-old was selected in the fifth round of the 2014 draft and didn’t make his big league debut until April 2021. He has made 26 appearances in the majors for the Tampa Bay Rays, Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Los Angeles Angels over the parts of three seasons. He’s a .111/.158/.167 career big league hitter in 57 plate appearances.
Across parts of 10 seasons in the minors, Padlo has a career .243 average in 875 at-bats. While he has shown patience in the box at times, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is nearly 2-to-1.
Padlo’s one shining moment as a Dodger: in the first Cactus League game, he hit the team’s first home run of the spring.
Photo Credit: Bryan Terry/The Oklahoman/USA TODAY Network
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