Padres, Tommy Nance Agree To Minor League Deal

The Padres have agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Tommy Nance, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. The right-hander had reached minor league free agency after being outrighted by the Marlins at the beginning of the offseason.

Nance, 32, lost the bulk of the 2023 season to shoulder and oblique injuries. He pitched 17 innings over four minor league levels but didn’t make an MLB appearance for the Fish this year. Nance had seen a fair amount of action out of the Miami relief corps the previous season. He logged 43 2/3 innings across 35 appearances in 2022, posting a 4.33 ERA while striking out an impressive 29.1% of batters faced.

A Long Beach native and Santa Clara product, Nance has 72 1/3 MLB innings under his belt. He debuted with the Cubs in 2021 five years after going undrafted. The Marlins claimed him off waivers in Spring Training the following season. He owns a 5.47 ERA at the highest level, although he’s shown the potential to pick up a fair amount of whiffs and ground balls.

San Diego has a handful of relief jobs up for grabs after each of Josh Hader, Nick Martinez and Luis García reached free agency. The Padres are likely to add one or two relievers who’ll be locked into the season-opening mix, but they’ll also take a few fliers of this nature to bring in non-roster competition.