The Padres have signed LHP Dennys Reyes to a 1-year deal worth $550k. Earlier this month we identified Reyes as a guy Kevin Towers and company should target.

You had to figure the Pads would grab another lefty. And with Glendon Rusch staying in Chicago, that left John Halama, Ron Villone, and Reyes as the best available options in the price range.

Reyes has big-league experience starting and relieving. He keeps the ball in the park and he strikes out a fair amount of hitters. An added benefit is that Reyes hails from Mexico, always a consideration in the San Diego/Tijuana market.

I’m sure some folks won’t be happy that the Pads are signing bargain basement guys like Reyes and Rudy Seanez, but if we accept the club’s publicly stated working budget of $65M, then these are exactly the types of players they should be grabbing. Guys who aren’t expensive and who have some upside.

The Padres have laid out $1.1M total for Reyes and Seanez. Here are their combined numbers from 2004:

   IP   H HR BB  SO  ERA  H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9
154.0 153 15 69 137 4.32 8.94 0.88 4.03 8.01

Not great, but I’ll take it over 3 years/$22.5M for this:

   IP   H HR BB  SO  ERA  H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9
200.1 202 15 61 134 4.31 9.07 0.67 2.74 6.02

You could argue that the Padres should loosen up the purse strings and go after more high profile talent. Maybe they should. And maybe they will.

Me? Right now I’m happy to see them choose raiding the bargain bins over throwing long-term money at the likes of Benson, Troy Percival, and Omar Vizquel.