San Diego Padres I know Xander Bogaerts will be a middle infielder next season, but I don’t know if he will play second base or shortstop.

However, they plan to lock Bogaerts into a position much sooner than 2024.

“I think we’ll probably try to get some information for him earlier this year than last year,” the Padres president of baseball operations said. AJ Preller said Wednesday during the general managers meetings. “I think it was cool the way he handled things. I was a little late, because we had a lot of questions about the roster. …So we’ll come back to Alex in a moment to have that conversation, be respectful to him. … We’ll have that conversation with him here as soon as possible.

Bogaerts didn’t know he would be asked to move to second base, a position he had never played, until he showed up to spring training last February. He had to learn the position on the fly and later mentioned that some hip problems resulted from unfamiliar movements and the effort required to adapt.

After starting 1,319 games at shortstop from 2014-23, Bogaerts returned to his regular position for the final two and a half weeks of last season after Ha-Seong Kim suffered a shoulder injury.

It seems very likely that Bogaerts will play shortstop for the Padres in 2025. The team expects this to be a short-term arrangement, with the hope that prospect Leo De Vries will take over by 2026.

De Vries is the 28th ranked prospect by MLB.com and 23rd by ESPN.

The organization believes De Vries has the potential to hit 30+ home runs each season from both sides of the plate, while also playing solid defense. While he still has room to grow physically, he’s already showing impressive plate discipline for his experience level.

De Vries spent the season at Lake Elsinore, where he posted a .238 average and an .803 OPS in 75 games. However, he got hot over his last 36 games, hitting .288 with a .989 OPS.

It is possible that he will be summoned in September 2025.

“It’s good to see that they are not afraid to help you progress and introduce you to different levels of baseball,” » said De Vries. “It’s very exciting to move forward so quickly.”