José Lopez #98

The Padres selected the southpaw from the Triple-A roster of the Tampa Bay Rays in the Major League phase of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft on Dec. 7, 2022 at the Winter Meetings in San Diego...37 of his 40 appearances in ’22 came at the Double-A level of Tampa Bay’s Montgomery, where he converted nine of his 11 save opportunities and posted two separate 12.0 scoreless-inning streaks...Allowed just one HR to the 252 batters he faced in 2022...Was one of just four relievers at the Double-A level to allow one HR-of fewer across at least 35 appearances...In five Minor League seasons in TB's system from 2017-22, Lopez posted a 3.32 career ERA (97 ER, 263.0 IP) in 105 appearances (33 starts) with 303 strikeouts against 144 walks.

2022

The southpaw worked exclusively in relief for the first time in his career, splitting the season between Bowling Green (A), Montgomery (AA) and Durham (AAA)…went a combined 8-3 with nine SV in 11 SVO in 40 relief appearances along with a 2.67 ERA (17 ER, 57.1 IP) and a .174 opponents’ clip... 37 of his career-high 40 appearances came at the Double-A level with MTG, where he went 8-3 with a 2.87 ERA…had a career high 14.7 SO/9 IP ratio over 53.1 IP with Montgomery, striking out 87 of his 228 batters faced... His lone HR allowed on the season came in his second outing on April 14 vs. Tennessee…did not allow a homer across his final 38 outings and 237 batters faced... With MTG, left-handed batters hit .164 (11-for-67) against him, and righties hit .167 (21-for-126)…with RISP, opposing batters hit just .125 (9-for-72) against Lopez... Tossed 2.0+ IP in 15 of his 40 appearances, going 6-0 and converting all 4 of his SVO in those outings... In his 11 SVO, he converted nine of the 11 and posted a 2.20 ERA (4 ER, 16.1 IP) with a .145 opponents’ clip... Posted a 12.0 scoreless-inning streak across nine appearances from June 2-July 7…posted another 12.0 scoreless-inning streak across 10 outings from Aug. 4-Sept. 2... His teams were 26-14 in games in which he appeared.