Chris Kemp peers into a crystal ball every time he sees a kid, whether it’s on the back fields at the Padres’ Dominican Republic complex in San Cristobal, watching a workout in a parking lot off the highway in La Victoria, Venezuela, or at a showcase in Cartagena, Colombia.
He’s envisioned Jeisson Rosario running down a gapper off Cody Bellinger’s bat. He’s watched Gabriel Arias revving up a 70-grade arm deep in the hole at Petco Park. He’s seen Luis Patiño record the final out to win a World Series.
Of course, reality hit hard, time and time again, as General Manager A.J. Preller traded some of Kemp’s most prized signings from the international amateur market to boost last year’s playoff push and reload the big-league rotation for another run in 2021.
Feelings be damned, prospects remain baseball’s most lucrative currency.
“I guess bittersweet is the word,” Kemp said this week. “Every single one of those conversations was very emotional for me. They’re family. Those kids are family. But on the other side, I know what we’re doing. We’re helping Manny Machado get more ammunition. We’re helping (Eric Hosmer). We’re helping (Fernando) Tatis. We’re helping our locker room with more ammunition to make a run at the World Series.
“At the end of the day that’s what it’s all about — adding value in any way, shape or form.”
The next opportunity to add more value arrives Friday when the 2021 international amateur period opens. That market paved Tatis’ path to affiliated ball as an $825,000, 16-year-old signee of the White Sox in July 2015 — less than a year before the Padres pried him from Chicago in the James Shields trade — and has become an important pipeline to a Padres organization looking to replenish a system that saw some of the biggest names from Kemp’s classes bear real fruit over the last year.
On the field, Cubans Adrián Morejón, Jorge Oña and Michel Báez all contributed in some way or another to the Padres’ first playoff season since 2006. Off it, the trades for Mike Clevinger, Austin Nola and Mitch Moreland required Arias, Andres Muñoz and Rosario included in the multiplayer packages.
The trading resumed last month with Patiño, a $130,000 signee in July 2016, as the linchpin in a deal that installed Blake Snell atop the Padres’ rotation. Then Preller gave Snell competition for that Opening Day start when two top signings from the 2019-20 class (Reginald Preciado and Ismael Mena) and an up-and-comer from the 2017-18 class (Yeison Santana) helped reel in Yu Darvish.
The exodus led MLB.com to reconfigure the Padres’ rankings to include a dozen international signings under Kemp in its top 30 — Tucupita Marcano (6), Tirso Ornelas (10), Brayan Medina (16), Omar Cruz (17), Carlos Guarate (23), Eguy Rosario (24), Luis Gutierrez (25), Miguel Rondon (26), Jordy Barley (27), Charlis Aquino (28), Efrain Contreras (29) and Osvaldo Hernandez (30).
“I know we’ve signed as talented of classes the last five or six years as anybody,” Kemp said. “I’ll put that up against anybody. I’m confident in our ability to find talent, sign talent, evaluate it. I just know every year we’re going to bring some talent to the board.”
Naturally, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic added challenges to the process, from grounding scouts as the game shut down to forcing Kemp and his staff to scramble to fit players into the budget as the traditional July 2 signing date was pushed back to Jan. 15. The rules no longer allow teams to blow past bonus pools — the Padres spent some $80 million, including overage taxes, on the 2016-17 class — but Kemp’s staff had been anticipating an increase to this year’s hard-capped $5.9 million bonus pool that never came, further complicating the Padres’ game plan.
The down time, Kemp said, allowed the Padres’ international scouting staff to tighten their reporting structures and processes. But because Kemp, who doubles as the Padres’ minor league field coordinator, spent the summer running the alternate site at USD, he relied more than ever on his lieutenants in the field: International supervisor Trevor Schumm, Bill McLaughlin in Mexico, Luis Prieto in Venezuela, Alvin Duran in the Dominican Republic and Ricardo Montenegro in Panama, among others scattered around Latin America and the Pacific Rim.
Their collective work has the Padres, according to Baseball America, poised to land four of the top-50 prospects on Baseball America’s board:
- No. 21 | SS Victor Acosta: A switch-hitter and a “plus runner with an above-average arm … and slashing offensive approach, with more bat speed and power from the left side,” according to Baseball America’s scouting report.
- No. 34 | RHP Victor Lizarrga: A Mexican with a “fastball that has been up to 93 mph with the space on his tall, lean frame (6-foot-4, 180 pounds) to project a better fastball once he packs on weight.”
- No. 37 | OF Samuel Zavala: The Venezuelan left-handed hitter “is on the younger side of the class, and as he’s grown more physical (6-foot-1, 178 pounds), the ball has started to jump off his bat better with the projection for more.”
- No. 42 | OF Daniel Montesino: At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, the Venezuelan is a “large-framed, physical corner outfielder with good feel for the barrel, showing a sound approach for his age and the ability to hit to all fields, with his power trending up.”
Kemp could not discuss the specifics of the class he and his staff are assembling until the kids sign Friday. The market is so competitive that Kemp, as he usually does, was flying back to the Dominican Republic this week to “protect” a group of prospects he believes will fit right in with a system that’s ranked among the best in the game the last few seasons.
“I’m more excited about this class than any other class we’ve signed,” Kemp said. “One, being the talent. I’m a believer in the talent. We’re reloading this system and just the work as a staff and holding the line and getting these guys, we’re in a good spot to keep our organization in line to keep adding talent.
He added: “You know, if you just stick to our process and our playbook, good things are going to happen. I hope the fans and the city is happy with our department and we’re not going to stop. We’re going to keep bring more prospects into the system.”
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ADDING VALUE
A look at the most expensive signees under Padres international scouting director Chris Kemp and where they are now:
- LHP Adrián Morejón ($11 million): The 21-year-old Cuban has a 6.26 ERA through his first 27 1/3 innings in the playoffs but impressed with three shutout innings in the Wild-Card series.
- OF Jorge Oña ($7 million): The 24-year-old Cuban homered while going 3-for-12 last year during his first call-up.
- INF Luis Almanzar ($4.05 million): The 21-year-old Dominican has not yet advanced to high Single-A and is a .211/.297/.288 hitter through three minor league seasons.
- RHP Michel Báez ($3 million): The 24-year-old Cuban has a 3.67 ERA since making his MLB debut in the summer of 2019; he appeared in only three games in 2020.
- LHP Osvaldo Hernandez ($2.5 million): The 22-year-old Cuban has a 2.94 ERA and 189 strikeouts over three minor league seasons; he has not pitched above high Single-A.
- RHP Ronald Bolaños ($2.25 million): The 24-year-old Cuban was traded to the Royals in July in the deal that landed LHP Tim Hill; Bolaños had debuted with the Padres in 2019.
- OF Ismael Mena ($2.2 million): The 18-year-old Dominican was in the package that landed Darvish; Mena signed in July 2019 and had not made his organizational debut in the minors.
- SS Gabriel Arias ($1.9 million): The 20-year-old Venezuelan was packaged to Cleveland in the Clevinger trade; Arias hit a career-high 17 homers at high Single-A Lake Elsinore to earn first nonroster invite to spring training last February.
- OF Jeisson Rosario ($1.85 million): The 21-year-old Dominican and 3B prospect Hudson Potts were sent to Boston for Moreland. Rosario is a .264/.376/.340 hitter across three seasons in the low minors.
- OF Tirso Ornelas ($1.5 million): The 20-year-old Mexican was holding his own in the Mexican winter league until breaking a bone in his forearm; he is a .241/.337/.344 hitter over three seasons in the low minors.
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