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As we get closer to Opening Day, the roster is coming into focus. Today’s news is as follows:
The Padres optioned Kevin Quackenbush and reassigned Tony Cruz, Carlos Fisher, Jamie Romak and Brett Wallace. 36 players left in camp.
— Dennis Lin (@sdutdennislin) March 29, 2017
Kevin Quackenbush is on the 40-man roster and apparently has two option seasons remaining. While he’s been shaky at best the last two years, he’s a healthy arm with MLB experience, so he has that going for him, which is nice. It’s also nice that he’ll be a long ways away from Petco Park to start the season, what with his 9.58 spring training ERA and all.
Tony Cruz (C), Carlos Fisher (RHP), Jamie Romak (3B/1B), and Brett Wallace (1B/DH) are all veterans with MLB experience and are with the organization on minor league contracts. Romak had a particularly nice spring, going 10-for-31 at the plate with two homers and representing his native Canada in the World Baseball Classic. They are likely to head to El Paso to try to earn a promotion later this season.
It has also been announced that Alex Dickerson (back), Buddy Baumann (shoulder), and Christian Friedrich (back) will all start the season on the 10-day disabled list. This brings the total players in MLB camp to 36, which means that there’s room to add some of the plethora of players being waived as teams trim their active rosters, or to promote some of those in camp who are not currently on the 40-man.