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Idea of Franchy Cordero exciting for Padres, who need him to be more - The San Diego Union-Tribune

A.J. Preller thinks in the abstract pretty much on the daily. Such pondering serves as a launching pad as he attempts to turn fantasy into reality and mold a perennially horrible team into a champion.

But the Padres general manager cannot afford to count on the abstract, which is why he doesn’t give in to the temptation to daydream about what could be with Franchy Cordero.

Even though two of his best players kept reminding him just how good Cordero is.

“He’s the X-factor, man,” Tommy Pham told Preller this winter.

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And then there was this from a young shortstop many consider on the verge of being (or maybe already being) the game’s most exciting player:

“Franchy is me,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said during a visit Preller made to the Dominican Republic last month.

This past week, Tatis expounded on the idea.

“I feel he’s a player, if he has a chance, he’s going to outplay me,” Tatis said. “He has more tools than me. He has way more power than me, and the speed is about the same level. He has a chance to be a great player. … If he stays healthy, he can be one of the best players in the game, simple as that. He is, how do you say, when people don’t know about you? I think he’s one of the best players. Hopefully, he has a chance to show what he has.”

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That’s just it.

Cordero is under the radar. Because he has been grounded.

He is a hope. An if.

The 25-year-old has the broad back of a light heavyweight boxer and the speed of an NFL safety. He also seems to be an excellent student. But he is essentially merely a concept as a major league ballplayer.

“He’s just got to play,” Preller said.

Cordero’s major league debut came late in May of 2017, and he hit three doubles, three triples and three home runs in 99 plate appearances in the majors. He also struck out 44 times and drew just six walks before being sent down and spending the rest of the season in Triple-A.

That offseason, he was named MVP of the Dominican Winter League after hitting .323/.393/.495 over 211 plate appearances.

He has played in 49 major league games in the two seasons since. It has been at times glorious. There have been hints it can get even better. It has mostly been a tease.

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“If you can get him 500 at-bats,” Padres associate manager Skip Schumaker said, “there could potentially be some serious numbers.”

This doesn’t seem to be just blissful speculation. Cordero is the rare player whose at-bats are a must-see. It might be almost as likely that he hits an inside-the-park home run as that he belts a ball over the wall.

Cordero was called up to the majors on April 11, 2018. He homered that night and again two days later. On April 21, he lined a 489-foot home run to the center of Chase Field. It was the second-longest homer in the majors that season and the longest hit by a Padres player since Statcast began measuring distances in 2015.

A few weeks later, Cordero began experiencing soreness in his right elbow. He played on for another couple of weeks until, with his OPS (on-base-plus-slugging percentage) having plummeted from .847 on May 11 to .746 on May 27, he was placed on the injured list. He was shut down a few games into a June rehab assignment and had bone chips removed in a July surgery.

He again played in the Dominican that winter, hitting a middling .232/.321/.384 in 112 plate appearances but impressing one teammate in particular.

“Me and him hit in the same (batting practice) group,” Pham said. “I hit right after him pretty daily. In the Dominican, every disadvantage possible for a hitter is present. Balls do not fly. The fields are humongous. It’s very humid. During batting practice, I would smash balls and be like, ‘That’s gone.’ And it wouldn’t go out. And he would smash balls, and it would go out. It was very humbling.”

After a strong showing last spring, which included his showing a vastly improved awareness of the strike zone and a new resolve (and new batting stance) with two strikes, Cordero made the opening-day roster.

On April 5 in St. Louis, in the Padres’ eighth game of the season and his eighth game of the season, Cordero went 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and a sacrifice fly. He was batting .357 with a .444 OBP in 18 plate appearances.

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The next day, after a walk and a strikeout, he was pulled in the fifth inning with soreness in his right elbow. To that point, he had chased just 17.7 percent of the pitches he had seen outside the strike zone, lowest on the team and down from 31.8 percent in 2018.

He was placed on the injured list on April 7 and didn’t play in the majors again.

What was described as an elbow sprain had healed by the end of May. But in a June 12 game for Triple-A El Paso, he ruptured a quad muscle running out a ground ball. His season was over.

“I was feeling really good,” Cordero said of last March and April. “I was putting into practice a lot of stuff I had been working on in winter ball and coming into camp and heading into the season. … It’s really frustrating not being able to do what I love. The only thing I can do is go out and prepare every day and be out there for long stretches.”

The patience with his promise will eventually run out. The Padres say they are trying to win now. They acquired Pham to start him in left field virtually every day. They got Trent Grisham with the hope he starts in center more often than not (at the least). They remain in the market for a front-line outfielder.

With Wil Myers a lock to be on the roster if he isn’t traded, it would seem Cordero, who can play all three outfield positions, is competing with Josh Naylor, Juan Lagares and/or Abraham Almonte for playing time and/or a spot on the big-league roster.

“I feel that urgency,” Cordero said through interpreter David Longley. “I haven’t been able to be on the field a full season. I want to play the game I love, and I want to get out there and play a full season and do that for a lot of seasons.”

That’s really about it.

He looks as good as ever. He is working as diligently as ever. He had a 1.037 OPS in 39 plate appearances in the Dominican this winter.

Being in shape, which he always is, is all he can do. Stating his desire to remain healthy is all he can say.

Others are happy to speak about him, if mostly for their earnest disappointment about what hasn’t been but also for their desperation to see what could be.

“A very exciting player to watch,” said Pham, who is one of just four players in the majors to have at least a .850 OPS and 65 stolen bases since 2017.

“I think he’s one of the best players I’ve seen,” said Tatis, who in 2019 led the Padres with a .969 OPS and despite playing just 84 games became one of just four rookies ever to hit 22 home runs and steal 16 bases.

“It’s Tatis’ power plus speed, Pham’s power plus speed,” Schumaker said. “That combo is just rare. You just don’t see guys hitting it that far and running that fast in the league. … Everyone knows how hard he works and feels terrible about the injury history. Everybody loves him. Everybody wants him to be healthy because they want to see the production. If he’s healthy, he will produce.”

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