Margot placed on DL; Cordero activated

DENVER -- After taking a bruising pitch to his left rib cage in the ninth inning of Tuesday's 5-2 win over the Rockies, Manuel Margot landed on the disabled list Wednesday as the Padres reinstated Franchy Cordero to fill his shoes in center field and atop the order.
"He's got some bruised ribs," Padres manager Andy Green said before Wednesday's series finale. "Obviously it was very flush where he got hit yesterday. The hope is it's four or five days and he'll start feeling better, start getting some swings in, and he'll be ready to go. Tough blow yesterday, but I saw him last night. He was in good spirits. He was laughing, laughing wasn't hurting him. Smiling like he always does. He should be good to go in 10 days."
Margot returned to the top of the order for Tuesday's game after batting eighth in the series opener, and he gave the Padres a spark in the third when he legged out a double to center and scored on the next at-bat. He left the game hitting .159 (7-for-44) with a double, a homer, three RBIs and two stolen bases.

Cordero, the club's No. 10 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, had a great Spring Training and was competing for a starting job in the outfield until a groin injury put him on the DL 10 days before breaking camp. He hit .412 (7-for-17) in four rehab games with Triple-A El Paso, knocking a double, a homer and stealing two bases.
"I honestly took it as something that happens in baseball," Cordero said of the injury that delayed his appearance on the big league roster. "I know that those things happen. I just focused on my rehab, I focused on being healthy and making sure I was 100 percent before I came up."

Green said the Padres had previously planned on activating Cordero when they went home on Monday.
"He's just got to play baseball right now," Green said. "He's got [Rockies starter German] Marquez today. That's a live fastball, and Franchy can get on some fastballs. Should play nicely into what he does very well. If he stays selective in his zone, he should be successful. We just want to turn his athleticism loose on a baseball field. He's up there with probably the top five or 10 most athletic guys in the game of baseball. So he's a fun electric guy to have on the field."
Cordero made his debut and played 30 games for the Padres in 2017, hitting .228 (21-for-92) with a .276 on-base percentage, making 22 starts in center and one in left. He improved enough by spring to be arguably the Padres' best hitter in Cactus League play.
"He's an interesting bat," Green said of his ability to fill the leadoff role. "He can hit anywhere in the lineup. He can hit in the one-hole because he absolutely flies. The challenge for him mainly now is just get on base. But he's got as much pop as anybody we have. He's not a fun guy to stare at as the first batter of the game."
Green compared him favorably to Charlie Blackmon, an MVP-caliber leadoff hitter for the Rockies who in 2017 hit 37 homers and drove in 104 runs while stealing 14 bases.
"Blackmon can fly all over the field, steal a base for you, he can hit the ball out of the ballpark," Green said. "Franchy is not Charlie Blackmon, he hasn't done anything along those lines, but he has those kinds of tools to do those types of things."
In other injury news, Wil Myers, on the DL with right arm nerve irritation, took his first light swings Wednesday as part of his rehabilitation process.