Carlos Quentin has been on and off the disabled list while playing just 50 games this season due to a spring training knee injury and Padres manager Bud Black no longer expects to him to return to the lineup this year.
Black told Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union Tribune “it’s looking more and more that his season might be over” even though the team believes he’ll be able to avoid a fourth knee surgery since they acquired Quentin in 2012.
That means he’ll have played 86, 82, and 50 games in three seasons with San Diego, yet the Padres liked Quentin enough midway through that first season to give him a three-year, $27 million contract extension. So they owe him $8 million for 2015 and $10 million or a $3 million buyout for 2016.
Quentin has been injured a lot throughout his career, but prior to this season he’d always maintained strong production whenever he was healthy enough to be in the lineup. That hasn’t been the case this season at age 31, when he’s hit .177 with four homers and a .599 OPS following four straight seasons with an OPS above .800.