{"id":114700,"date":"2026-02-25T20:02:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T01:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=114700"},"modified":"2026-02-25T20:02:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T01:02:03","slug":"padres-jose-miranda-stays-hot-vying-for-roster-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/02\/25\/padres-jose-miranda-stays-hot-vying-for-roster-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Twins Infielder Stays Hot for Padres, Mashing His Way to Roster Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As spring training marches on, the San Diego Padres have continued to see certain players show flashes of brilliance in the five-game sample. Whether or not they can continue to produce remains to be seen over the next few weeks. One of these players is <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/miranjo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jos\u00e9 Miranda<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_93528\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-93528\" style=\"width: 528px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/01\/USATSI_24301379-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"352\" class=\" wp-image-93528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/01\/USATSI_24301379-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/01\/USATSI_24301379-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/01\/USATSI_24301379-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/01\/USATSI_24301379-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/01\/USATSI_24301379-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/01\/USATSI_24301379-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/01\/USATSI_24301379-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-93528\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sep 22, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Minnesota Twins first baseman Jos\u00e9 Miranda (64) makes a catch for an out against the Boston Red Sox during the eighth inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Jos\u00e9 Miranda Vying for Roster Spot with Padres Thanks to Strong Spring Start<\/h2>\n<h3><strong>A Wild First Game in Peoria<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Friday, Miranda had his first game in a San Diego uniform. In the Padres\u2019 spring opener against the Seattle Mariners, he came up to the plate after popping out in the fifth inning and connected on an 0-1 slider from <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=hoppe-000ale\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Hoppe<\/a> for a two-run home run, tying the game for the Friars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Later, he doubled in the ninth to bring home another runner, finishing the day 2-for-3 with two RBI and the first home run of 2026 for the Friars.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jose Miranda ties it for the <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Padres?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Padres<\/a> in the 7th inning with a 2-run BLAST!<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa MLB Network <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lOhUEvlLls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/lOhUEvlLls<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLBNetwork\/status\/2024970629301022776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 20, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Building Resum\u00e9 towards a Bench Role<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since then, Miranda has been on a tear, going 6-for-9 with two walks and six RBI, putting up a ridiculous .667\/.727\/1.222 slash line over four games played.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether or not he can continue that production in the regular season remains to be seen. Miranda has posted a .263\/.310\/.409 career slash line over the last four seasons with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/17\/royce-lewis-injury-replacement-options\/\" target=\"_self\">Minnesota Twins<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By all accounts, that\u2019s a half-decent offensive output. He has a career 103 wRC+, placing him just above league average in offensive production. But San Diego needs more than decent from their bench; they need consistent results.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Crowded Infield Doesn&#8217;t Help<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Padres, apart from first base, have a mostly set infield. With <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/machama01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Manny Machado<\/a>, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bogaexa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Xander Bogaerts<\/a>, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/croneja01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jake Cronenworth<\/a> entrenched at third base, shortstop, and second base, respectively, there&#8217;s not a whole lot of room for an addition apart from the cold corner.<\/p>\n<p>So, without a starter role in mind, the bench is the best Miranda can aspire to. Obviously, the hope is that he continues to produce so much that San Diego can&#8217;t afford to not have his bat. But the lineup math gets tricky from there on out.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Is the Glove There?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Thankfully, his defense doesn&#8217;t need to be that good to man first base. It just has to be serviceable enough not to cost the Friars runs. And it is.<\/p>\n<p>Across 92 games at the position (81 games started), Miranda posted a .995 fielding percentage. But those numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt, as the last time he played the position consistently was in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, he played 13 games at the cold corner in 2024 and had a 1.000 fielding percentage, but it&#8217;s likely that would change across a full season of play. But if Miranda&#8217;s bat heats up the way it is now, defense will matter far less so long as his bat plays well.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s why Miranda can\u2019t hold anything back this spring. Any slip-up is a major loss of ground in the race for a coveted bench spot in the Friars\u2019 dugout.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s not yet clear if Jos\u00e9 Miranda will be suiting up for the Padres on Opening Day, but if he continues to rake in the coming weeks, that bench role will be his to lose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><br style=\"font-weight: 400;\" \/>Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As spring training marches on, the San Diego Padres have continued to see certain players show flashes of brilliance in the five-game sample. Whether or not they can continue to produce remains to be seen over the next few weeks. One of these players is Jos\u00e9 Miranda. Jos\u00e9 Miranda Vying for Roster Spot with Padres [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5784,"featured_media":114746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1071,35],"tags":[3333,5781,43,292],"class_list":["post-114700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-padres","category-mlb","category-news","tag-jake-cronenworth","tag-jose-miranda","tag-manny-machado","tag-xander-bogaerts"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5784"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114700"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114747,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114700\/revisions\/114747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}