That was a constant refrain this offseason as evaluators, in and outside the organization, sized up what lies ahead for CJ Abrams after the Padres’ top prospect lost a year of official plate appearances during the pandemic, half a year at Double-A San Antonio to a torn MCL and even make-up time in the Arizona Fall League to a shoulder injury.
“It’s the big leagues,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said matter-of-factly Friday afternoon. “Development is more about getting at-bats. Once you get to the big leagues, you have to earn them and you have different guys if somebody’s hot. … You get to the big leagues and you don’t just run a guy out there because he needs at-bats. You run him out there because you feel it’s the right time to run him out there.
The latter point might be an argument to use Rosario in a utility role to allow the Padres’ top prospect the opportunity to fully develop, but the contending Padres need the better player on their roster“When I came up in Kansas City, obviously your goal is to win a championship every year but that wasn’t really expected out of us that first year,” Hosmer said.
Yes, not nearly a splash like Tatis — a prospect of a different caliber than even Abrams, No. 9 in Baseball America’s top-100 — but helpful for a contending team, nonetheless. “You don’t see breaking balls like this until you get to this level,” Hosmer said. “You don’t see two-seamers and cutters or anything like that. Once you kind of learn and go through that experience up here, that’s really the only way to get your eyes trained to what the ball can do.”
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