Non Roster Invitee: Matt Stairs – Padres

Matt Stairs, 42, looks to embark on his 18th season in the majors. This time Stairs is trying to make the Padres who would be the twelfth different team for the journeyman slugger.

Only pitchers Mike Morgan and Ron Villone have been on as many as 12 different teams.

Stairs admits he thought his career was about over when he signed a two year deal with Toronto in 2007, he went on to join the Phillies and now finds himself working as hard as ever to make the Padres as a left handed bat off the bench.

While losing weight has helped, Stairs also shaved his face and says that embracing the role of a pinch hitter is what has allowed him to thrive in the role.

Stairs is a career .268 pinch-hitter with 19 home runs. He has a career .377 on-base percentage coming off the bench. He also finds himself one home run behind Cliff Johnson for the most in a career as a pinch hitter.

It’s almost hard to believe Stairs hit 38 homers in 1999 or that he drove in 100 runs back to back in 1998 and 1999. Since his time with Oakland his at-bats and productivity have slowly declined but that’s not to say he can’t still get around on a pitch. As recently as 2008 he hit 21 homers and 28 doubles in 357 at-bats with the Blue Jays.

It’s hard to read too much into pinch hitters stats from year to year as they seem to change as much as the weather from 5 am to 2 pm but Stairs really struggled last season and one has to wonder if his age has caught up with him.

Thus far Stairs has put himself in position to make the Padres with a .263 average this spring in 19 at-bats. If he does make the team look for him to be used frequently by the friars

much the same way that his 103 at-bats last season came in 99 games.