Alexi Amarista has been playing well for the Padres at shortstop. (Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports)
SAN DIEGO — The smallest Padre is standing tall at shortstop.
Alexi Amarista, all 5-foot-6, of him, has helped answer a question that has followed this team: your shortstop, please?
“We’ve seen him make all the plays a shortstop needs to make,” Padres manager Bud Black said.
The Padres were confident, based on Amarista’s play last year in place of Everth Cabrera, that he could handle the load.
They did acquire Clint Barmes in the offseason, but that was a move based more for depth.
Amarista, through nearly a month of baseball, has shown the Padres what they anticipated.
“We saw it last year,” said Black, after Amarista appeared in a career-high 148 games last year and hit .239. “He has the ability to go to his left, go to the hole and he’s really good at charging the ball.”
Amarista started his 16th game on Monday; Barmes has five starts.
“With that position, you want steadiness, reliability,” Black said. “Alexi has proven he’s done his part defensively.”
At the plate, it hasn’t been as easy, although he hit his first homer of the year on Sunday in a win over the Dodgers.
But in a lineup that features outfielders Justin Upton, Wil Myers and Matt Kemp, that’s not a big issue.
Similar, in ways, to Amarista’s height.
