The Padres selected Martín Maldonado back onto the 40-man roster on Tuesday morning. That was required to carry him as the backup catcher for their Wild Card Series against the Cubs. Reliever Jason Adam, who is out for the season with a quad injury, was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Maldonado was in the organization on a minor league deal after being released from the MLB roster in August.
Backup catcher Elias Díaz tweaked his left oblique over the weekend and was evidently unavailable. Luis Campusano was the only other option on the 40-man roster who could back up Freddy Fermin. The Padres are carrying Campusano on the Wild Card series roster as well, but he hasn’t caught a single major league inning all season. Maldonado hasn’t been in the majors since the trade deadline but at least had built something of a rapport with the pitching staff when he and Díaz were the catching duo earlier in the year.
Fermin caught Nick Pivetta in today’s Game 1 loss. Díaz had worked behind the plate as Pivetta’s personal catcher for the entire season and would surely have been the Game 1 starter if healthy. Unless he suffers an injury, Fermin will play tomorrow and what the Padres hope is a necessary Game 3. Dylan Cease starts against a Cubs’ bullpen game tomorrow. San Diego has Yu Darvish lined up if the series goes to a decider. The Cubs have not announced plans for that potential outing.
Maldonado, who hit .204/.245/.327 and hasn’t played a game since July 30, is a contingency plan. The 15-year MLB veteran and 2022 World Series champion appeared in 65 postseason contests with the Astros between 2018-23.
