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BP Annual Player Comments

Year		Comment
2013		Valentine’s reliance on Padilla in high-leverage situations might have made sense on isolated occasions, but over the whole season it bordered on ridiculous. Padilla lived in the strike zone, meaning that while his strikeout and walk rates were good, when he got hit it was often hard. He had problems with home runs and batters got to him for an 845 OPS on the season, including hitting .337/.406/.616 from July on. While Padilla avoided the injuries that had plagued him in previous seasons, that is no guarantee his health will stay that way. The Red Sox can do better now that Padilla is a free agent.
2012		The minimal investment of re-signing Padilla to a $2 million base salary was a risk worth taking given his 2009-10 performance with the Dodgers as well as his injury concerns. Alas, the problems that cost him half of the latter season returned to haunt him in 2011. He underwent surgery to relieve an entrapped radial nerve shortly after pitchers and catchers reported, and lasted just four weeks on the big-league roster before needing a microdiscectomy to alleviate a herniated disc in his neck. Given that he's spent at least four weeks on the shelf in five straight years, his days as a rotation staple are probably over, but if he can recover the 92-93 mph fastball he's shown as a Dodger, he could find work as a reliever.
2011		Mustering his highest average fastball velocity since 2005 (92.4 mph), Padilla had much more success working up in the strike zone than in recent years, and posted career bests in both the strikeout and walk departments. At the same time, he became more fly ball-oriented, and had lousy luck on the home-run-per-fly-ball front. Though he avoided further gunshot wounds, his health was spotty; nerve inflammation in his elbow sidelined him after just four starts and cost him almost two months on the DL, and he started just once after August 15 due to a bulging disc in his neck. Having averaged 25 starts over the the past seven years, he's a risk; the Dodgers signed him to fulfill a swingman role, with a $2 million base salary plus incentives.
2010		Rarely durable enough or average enough to earn the League-Average Inning Muncher tag, Padilla wore out his welcome in Texas thanks to a penchant for inciting beanball wars and retreating to the clubhouse mid-game to surf the web. (Who doesn't read BP.com at work?) The Rangers punted in early August, whereupon the Dodgers tabbed him to patch their rotation. The move from a hitter's haven to a pitcher's palace and three weeks of rest seemingly worked wonders; Padilla gained an extra tick of velocity on his fastball and curveball, generating far more strikes with both, and rewarded Joe Torre's decision to ride the hot hand with two stellar postseason starts before the magic ran out in Game Five of the NLCS. Soon after the season he sustained a minor gunshot wound in his thigh by his target-shooting instructor, no doubt engendering schadenfreude among disgruntled Rangers fans.
2009		Again, while it's easy to bash Padilla for his performance, he did pitch through pain in the second half; 16 starts into his season, he had a 3.74 ERA and had delivered quality starts in half of them. He provided just three more in his last 13, but with the benefit of better support than Millwood, he wound up with a superficially better-looking season in fantasy categories. If this was supposed to be an "up" year in his up/down pattern in recent years, the down's going to be pretty fugly this year, and you can pretty much write off the chances the Rangers will pick up their option on him for 2010.
2008		Having received a three-year, $33 million deal in the after the 2006 season, like Millwood, Padilla had the worst season of his career in 2007, missing a third of the campaign with a sore arm and pitching quite poorly when available. In 2002 and 2003, Padilla went over 200 innings and then got hurt and was ineffective for a couple of seasons. In 2006, Padilla threw 200 innings and then was hurt and ineffective the next year. See the pattern yet?
2007		Texas picked up Padilla for Ricardo Rodriguez, who hasn`t been seen since; it`s possible not even the Phillies remember his name. Padilla improved his control last year, which meant he was pitching ahead of more batters and getting more strikeouts. It was a nice little year that looks even better once you give Padilla credit for pitching in a bandbox. He was resigned to a three-year, $33.75-million deal to be Texas`s ace, or number-two, or whatever passes for that kind of pitcher in Texas these days. The 1977 Rangers had Bert Blyleven, Gaylord Perry, Doyle Alexander, and Dock Ellis. The 1978 crew had Alexander, Ellis, Jon Matlack, Fergie Jenkins, and Doc Medich. The Rangers haven`t had four name pitchers in the rotation in a long time.
2006		Padilla started 2005 on the wrong note, stranded on the DL with elbow tendinitis. The rest of the season was off-key as well. Back, neck, and rib cage strains also nagged the veteran righty, and in December he was dumped on the Rangers for Ricardo Rodriguez. When healthy, Padilla is a good but far from great pitcher, so he should fit right in with the Rangers` redesigned rotation.
2005		This shouldn't be considered all that surprising. Though Padilla pitched fine after returning from the DL in August, there have always been questions about his stamina, and he had notably overachieved his peripheral numbers in both 2002 and 2003. In the long run, he might be best suited to a swingman role.
2004		Padilla didn't pitch in the Mexican winter league last year, and it paid off, as he was able to stay strong through an entire major league season. How he handles the events of this past winter?Padilla walked away from a car accident in Nicaragua that killed his best friend?is pretty much uncharted territory for a baseball analyst, and more in the wheelhouse of another type of analyst.
2003		Once Padilla learned how to consistently use his different release points he started making opposing batters look foolish. After pitching quite a few innings in winter ball, he wore down late in the season. To their credit the Phillies took extra precautions in how they used him. Unless a hidden injury suddenly pops up he should make the Curt Schilling trade look as good as it can over the next few years.
2002		Vern Ruhle has a very good track record with pitching projects, but even the best pitching coaches aren’t perfect. Padilla has a good arm and no idea what to do with it. He’s also burdened with the Closer of the Future tag, but he pitched well as a starter in Scranton after his demotion. Padilla has to have something to complement his fastball, because he can’t just blow it by hitters; until he develops something, he’s Triple-A material.
2001		Vicente Padilla appears intent on imitating the multi-armed Indian god Kali by throwing from several different angles. He would actually be better off if he focused on perfecting a couple of those angles; right now he’s not consistent with any.

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PITCHf/x Pitcher Profile

A Collaboration between BrooksBaseball.net and Baseball Prospectus - Pitch classifications provided by Pitch Info LLC

Although he has not thrown an MLB pitch in 2024, Vicente Padilla threw 9,334 pitches that were tracked by the PITCHf/x system between 2007 and 2012, including pitches thrown in . In 2012, he relied primarily on his Fourseam Fastball (93mph) and Sinker (94mph), also mixing in a Splitter (86mph) and Slow Curve (54mph). He also rarely threw a Curve (77mph).