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The San Diego Padres have some positions still in question and have plenty of options to fill those positions. With a handful of Padres regulars competing in the World Baseball Classic, it means players competing for roster spots with San Diego will have opportunities to win or lose
a job. In the case of some players, it may not be an opportunity to win a job, but an opportunity to show they should retain a roster spot they already hold.
In this week’s Padres Reacts Survey on Gaslmap Ball, readers were asked which player could benefit most from extra reps at the expense of WBC players. The majority of respondents said Sung-Mun Song would benefit most, which makes sense considering he is making the transition from the Korean Baseball Organization to MLB.
Song has shown himself to be a capable defender and seems to have adjusted to the higher velocity of pitches in MLB much quicker than his fellow countryman Ha Seong Kim when he made the jump from the KBO to MLB. Song blasted his first homerun, a 430-foot shot to right field off Seattle Mariners starter Luis Castillo, earlier this week in a 27-6 Padres win. The problem was not long after his homerun he left the game. It was reported that Song aggravated the oblique injury that he suffered in the offseason.
It would benefit Song to get back as fast as possible with Manny Machado playing for Dominican Republic and Xander Bogaerts playing for Netherlands in the WBC. The additional reps and trying to get acquainted with shortstop would be critical to his development, but he can only go as fast as his body and the Padres medical staff will let him.
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