Stammen lending valuable advice to young 'pen

SEATTLE -- Craig Stammen was candidly cognizant that the Padres might try to move him ahead of the July 31 Trade Deadline. He’s the only player on the 25-man roster who is an impending free agent, has been a fireman of sorts and has veteran (and postseason) experience that contending clubs covet.

Yet the Deadline passed and Stammen remains for what he hopes is a strong finish to an up-and-down season for the Friars, which will conclude a two-year, $6.75 million contract. Could he be part of the Padres’ future plans? Possibly. As the club looks to return to a more competitive environment, with postseason aspirations next season, it will be doing so with an incredibly green bullpen.

Excluding Stammen, 35, active Padres relievers among their eight-man bullpen are an average of 24 years old, including Andres Munoz and Adrian Morejon, who are each 20. Stammen has racked up 708 innings and pitched for 10 strong seasons, and since 2016 for San Diego, when the club began its rebuild.

“I'm trying to prove that I'm the best pitcher that I can possibly be the rest of the season,” Stammen said. “Part of that is what I do in the field. Part of that is what I do with the younger guys off the field and on the field. I think they've shown how much they value me and how much they care about me over the last three years. I don't think that changes.”

The club has admired his effectiveness -- he has a 3.06 ERA and 211 strikeouts in 187 games for the Friars -- but it has also admired how Stammen has embraced a leadership role for its young staff. He recalls leaning on similar veterans early in his career with the Nationals, such as Jason Marquis and Livan Hernandez.

“I think that's the beauty of baseball,” Stammen said. “We pass it along to each other. I'm not trying to withhold information. I want them to be the best they can be. I have one thing that they don't, and that's experience. I’m in their corner and I let them know that I’m in their corner.”

“Craig is a winner,” Padres manager Andy Green said. “That's probably the highest compliment you can pay anyone. He wants big situations. He craves it. He does well in it. I think he's helping cultivate that in our young guys. His work ethic is second to none. He dominates details.”

Statcastic homers in Seattle

If Josh Naylor’s eighth-inning homer on Tuesday looked like it was a mile off the plate, it’s because it was. At 1.40 feet from the center of the strike zone, it was the furthest outside pitch that has been hit for a homer this season for a right- or left-handed batter, according to Statcast. The last time any hitter homered on a pitch that far outside was former Padre Christian Villanueva, who connected on one 1.57 feet off the plate on Sept. 26, 2017.

The furthest pitch off the plate converted for a homer by a lefty since pitch tracking was implemented in 2008 is 1.71 feet, done by the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo on June 23, 2014.

Most notably, no pitch that high (3.59 feet) and far off the plate, by either a righty or lefty, had ever been hit for a home run before Naylor’s in the pitch-tracking era.

“You see him getting away from the hook-spin balls he hit early in his big league career, using the whole field again,” Green said. “He got a pitch and he stayed on it. It was really impressive. It was a great swing.”

Naylor’s long ball came two at-bats after Eric Hosmer crushed a 114.3-mph shot into the right-field bleachers. Asked if he thought it was his hardest-hit home run ever, Hosmer said: “Yeah, I think so. That one felt really good.”

Indeed, of Hosmer’s 103 homers tracked by Statcast (since 2015), his shot on Monday had the highest exit velocity. It was also the Padres’ hardest-hit homer this season.