Miguel Andújar is on the Padres Wild Card roster, and Samad Taylor is not. The late roster call came after Andújar missed the rest of the regular season with a fractured right wrist, turning a two-month absence into an immediate postseason option for the Padres.
Andújar had not appeared in a major-league game since July 19, when a curveball fractured his right wrist. He signed in February, played 74 games, and hit.259/.303/.423 with 20 doubles, five home runs and 38 strikeouts in 254 plate appearances before the injury stopped his season.
Padres Wild Card roster
The Padres built the roster around 11 pitchers and a 15-man position-player group, which is where the surprise lands. Most roster projections moved along without Andújar, but the Padres included him anyway, pairing Austin Hays and Miguel with right-handed coverage while Gavin Sheets supplied the left-handed counter.
That shape tells the story better than the name alone. Three catchers give the Padres freedom to pinch-hit without emptying the position, while Jase Bowen and Samad Taylor add speed and defense at the bottom of the bench. It is a compact postseason group, not a luxury one, so every slot has to cover more than one job.
After July and September
After July 19, Andújar did not return to a major-league game during the regular season. He started a Triple-A rehab assignment in September and kept taking at-bats at the Padres' Arizona complex, which gave the Padres enough recent contact work to consider him for the Wild Card series rather than treating him as a long-shot stash.
Last October is the backdrop here: The Cubs held the Padres to five runs over three games and beat them 3-1 in Game 3. The Padres' choice to carry a right-handed bat like Andújar points to a bench built for matchup flexibility, not just insurance. In a short series, that is often the difference between a pinch-hit option and a dead spot.
Cubs Wild Card rematch
The Padres left Sung-Mun Song off the roster, which makes the final bench picture even tighter. Andújar's exact postseason role is still the open question, but the roster math is clear: if the Padres want a bat that can stay available for DH duty or late-inning pinch-hitting, this was the spot they chose to spend.
