In case you missed it - and how could you miss it?! - the Padres signed Xavier Nady to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league spring training earlier this week. X. spent all of last season in AAA; his last major league appearance was as a Giant in the 2012 NLDS. Nady was 0-5 with a walk in San Francisco's five-game victory over the Reds.
For the uninitiated, this is not Nady's first stint with the Padres organization. He was selected in the second round of the 2000 amateur draft and signed that September. Nady also made his major league debut that same September, before playing in a single minor league game. He singled in his only plate appearance and then spent the entirety of the 2001 and 2002 seasons on the farm. Nady played in 268 games for the Padres from 2003 through 2005, posting a .263/ .320/ .414 slash line before being sent to the Mets for Mike Cameron, who was recovering from facial fractures and a concussion following a gruesome collision with teammate Carlos Beltran earlier in the year.
Nady lasted all of 75 games with the Mets before he was flipped at the 2006 trade deadline to Pittsburgh for fellow former Friar Oliver Perez and the original Roberto Hernandez. Nady notched his first 20 homer season in 2007 and followed that up with his career year in 2008. He hit .330 with 13 homers in 89 games as a Pirate before the Yankees acquired him in late-July. He finished the season with career-highs in games (148), doubles (37), home runs (25), RsBI (97), and all the slash averages (.305/ .357/ .510).
...and it's all been downhill from there. He missed all but seven games of the 2009 season after his second Tommy John surgery. He signed with the Cubs for 2010 and got into 119 games but slashed a disappointing .256/ .306/ .353 with just six homers. Nady moved on to Arizona, where he played in only 82 games, missed time with a broken hand, and saw his numbers decline even farther. He went even deeper into the abyss in 2012, batting .184 with four homers in 59 games split between the team formerly known as the Expos and the aforementioned Giants. He hit well in AAA last season but didn't fit into the Royals' or Rockies' plans.
It's difficult to see a scenario in which Nady is on the Opening Day roster. It would require about as many injuries as the Springfield Nine sustained, so more than likely he'll head to the West Texas town of El Paso and act as a mentor. Maybe if he tears it up he'll find a nice home somewhere else. We'll see, and none too soon. Hurry up and start happening again, baseball.
