The Padres are planning to select the contract of left-hander Daniel Camarena, reports Dennis Lin of the Athletic (Twitter link). The 28-year-old will make his MLB debut if he gets into a game. The Padres 40-man roster is full, so they’ll need to make a corresponding move to finalize Camarena’s promotion.
Camarena hasn’t yet played in the majors, but this won’t be his first big league call-up. The Yankees selected Camarena to the MLB roster on July 6, 2019. He didn’t get into that night’s game, and New York optioned him the next day. Camarena didn’t return to the Bronx, as he suffered an injury in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre shortly thereafter and wound up released. The Padres signed him to a minor league deal entering 2020. He spent all of last season at the Friars alternate training site and remained in the organization for 2021.
Assigned to Triple-A El Paso, Camarena has made eight starts this season. Over 39 frames, he’s pitched to a 3.00 ERA that ranks fourth-lowest among the 38 Triple-A West pitchers with at least 20 innings. That hasn’t come with particularly stellar strikeout or ground ball numbers, though. Camarena has punched out just 15.2% of batters faced while inducing grounders at an average 43% clip, and he’s benefitted from a lofty 81.5% strand rate and .231 batting average on balls in play against him. To his credit, Camarena has always been a quality strike-thrower, and that’s continued this season. The southpaw has walked just 7.0% of opposing hitters with the Chihuahuas.