Padres Spring Training Notebook: Friars route Reds 14-3, Fermin shining; WBC updates

The Padres evened their Cactus League record to 8-8 on Sunday afternoon with a 14-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at the Peoria Sports Complex. In what’s been a power surge amongst San Diego hitters the past week, it was slugger Gavin Sheets who belted his first homer of the spring off of right-hander Chase Burns, giving the Friars a quick and early 3-0 lead.

The blast off the big man’s bat had a registered exit velocity of 104.7 mph off the bat while traveling 410 feet. Sheets, 29, swatted 19 round trippers with a .746 OPS in 2025 for the Friars.

He’s currently penciled in as San Diego’s starting first baseman heading into Opening Day. 

Notes from Sunday:

• 2B Jake Cronenworth hustled out an RBI triple, boasts a 1.052 OPS in Cactus League play.
• CF Jackson Merrill collected two more hits and scored a run
• IF/OF Nick Castellanos is slashing .318/.464/.545 this spring, has now walked five times in 22 at-bats
• RHP Logan Gillaspie and LHP Kyle Hart combined to toss 6 2/3 scoreless innings on Sunday. The duo struck out five and walked two, both free passes being issued by Gillaspie. 

Freddy Fermin making most of starting role opportunity with Friars

A.J. Preller’s second deal of the 2025 Trade Deadline was the acquisition of catcher Freddy Fermin from the Kansas City Royals in exchange for right-handers Ryan Bergert and Stephen Kolek. At a time when it seemed counter-intuitive for the Padres to deal from their at the time thin starting pitching depth, it was actually setting them up for the future.

As you may remember, it was Fermin’s clutch walk-off single against the Milwaukee Brewers in late September that clinched a playoff berth for San Diego. He was also one of the lone bright spots for the club in the National Wild Card Series versus the Chicago Cubs.

Now, Fermin looks ready to take the reigns on an opportunity he’s been waiting for his whole career. A full season as a starting backstop. With the Royals, Fermin was under the tutelage of all-time great and future Hall-of-Famer Salvador Perez, never truly receiving the opportunity to start at the major league level. 

The 30-year-old heads into 2026 as the Padres’ primary catcher and has more than impressed in his first full camp with the club. In 16 at-bats, he’s batting .438 with a home run, eight RBIs, and a 1.188 OPS. Fermin has also gunned down two stolen base attempts against him.

If he can put it all together, he should be an instrumental part at the bottom of San Diego’s lineup, as well as one of the better defensive backstops in the game. 

America’s Finest shining on global stage

Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. are just two of a menacing Dominican lineup in this year’s World Baseball Classic. Through two contests, the D.R. sits at 2-0 with the pair of Padres teammates going a combined 5-for-16 (.313 BA), with five runs scored and eight walks. 

Friars shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who is representing the Kingdom of the Netherlands in this year’s WBC, currently sports a .273 average in 11 tournament at-bats. His squad dropped Sunday’s contest against the D.R. by a final score of 12-1.

In two combined innings, relievers Alek Jacob and Ron Marinaccio have struck out five hitters while allowing no hits, no runs, and no walks for Team Italy.

Finally, enter The Reaper. The sport’s best closer, Mason Miller, shut the door on Team Brazil in the United States’ 15-5 win on Friday night’s tournament opener at Daikin Park in Houston. The flame-throwing right-hander punched out the side, pumping 100 mph or more on 11 of 22 pitches thrown. Safe to say, he’s in mid-season form.