Padres Will Decide Xander Bogaerts' Position in 2025 Soon

Maren Angus-Coombs | Nov 9, 2024

Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images

The San Diego Padres know Xander Bogaerts will be a middle infielder next season but don't know if he will play second base or shortstop.

However, they plan to have Bogaerts locked into a position much earlier than they did in 2024.

“I think probably we’ll try to have some information earlier for him this year than we did last year,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said Wednesday at the General Manager Meetings. “I think it was cool the way he handled things. I was a little late, because we had a lot of questions about the roster. … So we’ll get to Xander here in a little bit to have that conversation, be respectful of him. … We’ll have that conversation with him here sooner rather than later.”

Bogaerts wasn’t aware he would be asked to switch to second base, a position he had never played, until he showed up for spring training this past February. He had to learn the position on the fly and later mentioned that some hip issues arose from the unfamiliar movements and the effort required to adjust.

Having started 1,319 games at shortstop from 2014 to 2023, Bogaerts returned to his usual position for the final two and a half weeks of last season after Ha-Seong Kim suffered a shoulder injury.

It seems most likely that Bogaerts will play shortstop for the Padres in 2025. The team expects this to be a short-term arrangement, with the hope that prospect Leo De Vries will take over the position by 2026.

De Vries is the 28th-ranked prospect by MLB.com and 23rd by ESPN.

The organization believes De Vries has the potential to hit 30-plus home runs each season from both sides of the plate, while also playing strong defense. Though he still has room to grow physically, he already demonstrates impressive plate discipline for his level of experience.

De Vries spent the season at low-A Lake Elsinore, where he posted a .238 average and an .803 OPS in 75 games. However, he heated up over his final 36 games, hitting .288 with a .989 OPS.

It's possible he could be a Sept. 2025 call-up.

“It’s good to see that they’re not scared to move you up and let you see different levels of baseball,” De Vries said. “It’s very exciting to move that fast.”