2022 Padres Player Review: Jose Azocar

2022 Regular Season Statistics

0.5 fWAR, 98 G, .257 AVG, .298 OBP, .332 SLG, 85 OPS+, 24 R, 10 RBI, 0 HR

Positives From This Season

Speed and defense. That’s really what Azocar is about. There was an encouraging stretch from September 2 to September 23 where he hit .371 and turned into the starting center fielder over Trent Grisham but then he came back down to earth and went back to the bench.

Azocar showed off his speed and made just four errors in his first season playing in major league outfields. In the postseason he didn’t get an at-bat but he did score the go-ahead run in Game 5 of the NLCS before Bryce Harper became a Philadelphia legend.

Negatives From This Season

You could say a negative is he didn’t have any power whatsoever (0 home runs, 10 RBI) but that’s like asking Austin Nola to hit a bunch of homers. That’s just not who he is.

The real negative for Azocar this year was when he got the chance to start in center field because of how bad Grisham was performing offensively, he didn’t take advantage of that for more than a few weeks. I wasn’t expecting him to be the starting center fielder in the playoffs because Bob Melvin was going to prioritize defense and power threats in the lineup but I guess I expecting him to hit better than .087 over his last nine games after getting on base consistently to begin September.

If you wish to listen or watch me talk more about Azocar’s season on the Talking Friars Podcast/YouTube show, click here!