This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SAN DIEGO -- The Padres aren’t asking Gavin Sheets to win a Gold Glove in left field. They didn’t sign him to play there in the first place. But now that Sheets is playing left field on a regular basis? His competence there goes a long way.
And, really, that’s what Sheets has been in the outfield lately -- competent. He’s still being subbed for a defensive replacement late in games when the Padres have a lead. But he has been good enough -- and continues to improve enough -- to start regularly.
“I’ve grown as a left fielder, in a good way,” said Sheets, who made his 35th start at the position this year on Sunday in Washington. “My reads have been better, jumps have been better, feeling more comfortable out there. There’s something every day that I’m trying to get better at. And it’s been fun to embrace it.”
This month, every start but one for Sheets has come in left field. He has been slightly subpar defensively, as evidenced by his -2 outs above average, according to Statcast.
But the Padres will take “slightly subpar” from Sheets in left. Because of what he brings with his bat. Because of what it means for the lineup. And perhaps most notably at this time of year, because the Trade Deadline is looming and everyone knows how desperate the Padres were for a left fielder.
To some extent they still are. General manager A.J. Preller recently told MLB Network Radio that the Padres were looking at “adding a bat or two.” Ideally, they’d find a strong defensive left fielder, pushing Sheets back into his first base/DH role. But there’s still immense value -- and potentially even leverage -- in the Padres merely having Sheets as an option in left.
“For me, it was, ‘Hey let’s embrace it,’” Sheets said. “I took it as a compliment. It was a good thing to be put out there. It was a good thing to try to fill what our needs were out there. I want to impact the game more ways than just DH.
“But at the same time, whatever’s needed from me. When I got called out there, it was a chance to fill a need right now. Let’s embrace it; let’s get as good as possible. If the Trade Deadline happens and we expand out there, get someone else out there, great. I did my role. I was out there for two months, filled a gap. Let’s build this team to a World Series.”
Sheets filling that gap has been critical. He quickly emerged as an everyday player, even starting against lefties. But once Sheets established himself as a regular, the Padres had a logjam.
Sheets and Arraez played the same position. If both were in the lineup, one would need to DH -- unless Sheets could handle left, where the Padres had gotten very little from their original Jason Heyward/Brandon Lockridge platoon.
“We knew the bat was going to be the calling card,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said of Sheets. “That jumped out immediately. He asserted himself in the lineup with his bat. Then we found a spot.”
The transition wasn’t smooth. In fact, it was about as un-smooth as it could be. Sheets struggled early. Then in just his seventh start in left field, he got a poor read on a deep fly ball and collided hard with the left-field wall chasing an eventual home run. Fortunately, Sheets avoided serious injury.
Shildt fielded questions throughout the following week about whether he was putting Sheets in harm’s way by insisting on using him in left. But Sheets was adamant that he continue. He and first-base coach David Macias, who works with the outfielders, take early work almost daily. It’s paid dividends.
“Him being able to go out and represent, playing clean defensively, improve -- he’s put a lot of work in,” Shildt said. “It creates an opportunity for him to go out there and perform. And it opens up a DH spot.”
Shildt has used that DH spot in numerous ways -- often giving his veteran infield of Arraez, Jake Cronenworth, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado days off in the field, while keeping their bats in the lineup.
In a long season, that extra rest might prove valuable -- even if there ends up being less of it down the stretch if the Padres add a new full-time left fielder in the coming weeks. Which is to say: Sheets’ work in left field won’t be for naught.