Josh

Barfield

Barfield is one of the game’s top second base prospects.

Barfield, the Padres’ second baseman of the future, will not play in the Arizona Fall League as planned.

Barfield is currently batting .309/.372/.442 with 15 steals in 20 attempts. He’s probably due for another season at Portland, but with his recent performance, he’s turned himself into a legitimate option to fill in at second base next time Mark Loretta gets hurt.

Barfield’s OBP has fallen back under .300, and he hasn’t displayed enough power to be a solid regular when he’s getting on back less than 30 percent of the time. As poorly as both Barfield and Vinny Castilla have played, Mark Bellhorn should be a regular right now.

Barfield replaced Todd Walker after left-hander Jack Taschner entered and hit a blast to left. If was his fifth homer in 94 at-bats against southpaws. He has the same number of homers in 322 at-bats versus righties.

It was just the third time all year that Barfield hit leadoff. He was only there tonight because Dave Roberts had the game off against a southpaw. Barfield should eventually settle in as a fifth- or sixth-place hitter for San Diego.

All that resulted in just one RBI and no runs scored, though, as Barfield is stuck batting eighth between Vinny Castilla’s .265 OBP and the pitcher. Since he’s 12-for-22 this month, maybe he’ll get a chance to move up in the order.

His homer resulted in Fuentes’ fifth blown save and fourth loss. Barfield doubled in a run earlier in the game. Faced with the threat of losing playing time, he has five extra-base hits in his last three games. He shouldn’t have to worry about sitting in favor of Russell Branyan while he’s hitting like this.

Barfield’s release makes room on the Triple-A Norfolk roster for the recently-demoted Jason Berken. Barfield hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2009. He’ll look to sign on elsewhere as organizational depth.

Barfield batted .257/.284/.365 with six homers, 55 RBI, 12 stolen bases and a .649 OPS with the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate last year. The 29-year-old hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2009 as a member of the Indians and is likely to serve as organizational fodder.