Padres Quentin Injures Right Leg - Out 4-6 weeks

San Diego Padres GM Byrnes made a huge, and to the low budget Padres very expensive, mistake in trading for Carlos Quentin.

The prospects he sent to the White Sox notwithstanding, Quentin had averaged only 98 games per season in the field for the White Sox over the past three seasons. Nothing indicated he would be any more healthy his year. In fact, the pattern of being injury prone was in place like a Huge Red Flag and Byrnes simply ignored the warning signs. Byrnes wanted to make up for another huge mistake he made while in Arizona in trading away a then 24 year old Quentin and in doing so compounded his mistake.

Padres Carlos Quentin Injures Right Leg - Out 4-6 Weeks

Now Quentin has injured his right leg and will undergo arthroscopic surgery on Monday. Quentin is expected to miss 4-6 weeks and at the very minimum, the first 2 weeks of the regular season. More likely he will return to the Padres lineup in the last week of April or early May.

To add insult to Quentin's injury, it is to his right leg, the drive leg for a right handed hitter, and will rob him of power all season. Power is the only thing Quentin has to offer to the Padres as he has been the very worst defensive outfielder in major league baseball over the past 3 seasons with a -38.2 UZR.

Those of you who follow me know that I am not a big fan of defensive metrics like UZR unless there is at least 3 years of data to analyze. Looking at just one season of data is totally useless. Well we have three years of Quentin's defensive contributions to base a good determination of his ability in the field on and it says what our eyes have been telling us, he is horrendous with the glove.

Now about what the Padres are paying for Byrnes attempt to redeem his earlier mistake:

• $7.025 million or more than 13% of the overall 2012 Padres payroll
• Two prospects that now rank in the top 20 for the White Sox organization and who will contribute at the major league level in 2012 for the South Siders. (Castro is #4 or #5 depending on the list)

So the bottom line of Byrnes screw up is that Quentin will give the Padres under 100 games of mediocre power and atrocious defense and then Quentin will leave in free agency after the season.

The GM of the team can afford to make mistakes like this when you have a $100+ million payroll, but in San Diego it can be fatal to your hopes of a decent season.

Byrnes hubris in trying to redeem himself for an earlier mistake and Quentin's continuing injury problems may have torpedoed San Diego chances at a .500 season before the season even begins.

I've had my say about Byrnes, Quentin and the San Diego Padres.

Now its your turn. What do you think?