Opening Day Roster Released

In a strange turn of events, the Padres have announced their opening day roster - with an eight-man bullpen and no backup infielder. The roster currently shows three Rule 5 players in Jabari Blash, Luis Perdomo, and Josh Martin, You read that right, as both Jemile Weeks and Adam Rosales have both been assigned to Triple-A, leaving no player on the roster to back up Spangenberg, Ramirez, or Solarte.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!! Apparently Padres brass have noted that they intend to add Adam Rosales to the roster tomorrow and DFA Rule 5 pick Josh Martin. It's a strange move that I don't comprehend right now, so hopefully some light will be shed on this soon.

My first question here is, why Rosales over Weeks? Rosales had a nice finish to his spring while Weeks cooled off a little, but it was clear that Weeks had the best spring out of everyone in camp. He can play basically anywhere on the diamond, and brings a lefty bat with some useful speed. Perhaps they're looking at Jankowski's bat and wheels as filling the bench offense role, but it certainly seemed to me that Weeks earned a job as well as anyone.

My next question lies in the outfield. Four outfielders is pretty standard, but they're rolling out five by including both Blash and Jankowski. Earlier this spring, it was stated that Myers would get some starts in left field when Brett Wallace started at 1B. So we have 5-1/2 outfielders. How do they spread playing time around? Kemp hardly took a day off last year, and Jon Jay is known as a player who needs to play every day to stay consistent. Unless another roster move is coming, I don't see how you negotiate Upton, Blash, and Jankowski into a rotation with this arrangement.

By carrying these five infielders, there's a precarious lack of depth up the middle. Wallace can play some third base, but he'll be a liability at that position for certain. Myers could probably play third, but hasn't since limited time there in AAA in 2012. If two of Spangenberg, Rosales, and Solarte get hurt, Andy Green will be forced to complete the game with a compromised infield to say the least.

I don't think they're done. This might be the "opening day" roster, but I can't imagine that this is the roster that they plan on sticking with for the first weeks of the season. There's one outfielder too many, and they could use one more player who can capably play around the infield. Personally, I'd love to see Jemile Weeks get a chance to keep a good thing going.