Alexander: Padres’ Manuel Margot and his unexpected power

LOS ANGELES — We knew Manuel Margot was a dynamic center fielder, the moment we saw him go over the center field fence at Petco Park to steal a home run from Carson Kelly in last July’s All-Star Futures Game.

We knew, from the numbers, that San Diego’s center fielder had speed, that he could get on base, and that he could be a doubles machine.

But home runs?

“We were talking earlier in the season about how there’s 20 home run (-type) pop in him,” San Diego manager Andy Green said. “I didn’t expect him to push toward that in his rookie season.”

He has pushed toward it in two and a half weeks, to be precise.

Margot hit his 11th and 12th home runs of 2017 Friday night in Dodger Stadium, a 393-foot solo shot to left center in the second inning and a 405-foot bomb to dead center, also solo, in the seventh inning that tied a game the Padres eventually won, 4-3.

Of those 12 homers, he has hit seven since July 26.

Is this suddenly a Dominican Rickey Henderson in the making? Is the manager’s 20-homer projection overly conservative?

“I don’t know,” Margot said through an interpreter. “I don’t think about that stuff too much, honest. I just go up there and try to have good at-bats and make contact. I don’t think about, ‘OK, if I do this I can hit this many, or if I do this I can have this many home runs, or that many.

“ … I don’t know if it necessarily has to do so much with power. It’s the contact you put on the ball, and the contact is the result of your swing. If (I) end up making good contact, then I know that I have the strength to hit it out.”

Margot, who turns 23 in September, was obtained from Boston in the Craig Kimbrel trade in December of 2015. He was No. 7 in Baseball America’s list of Red Sox prospects after the 2014 season, and the magazine’s most recent ratings have had him No. 2 in the Padres’ system behind pitcher Anderson Espinoza, who will be out through 2018 following Tommy John surgery.

At this point, Margot is the gem of A.J. Preller’s frenetic pursuit of prospects. He and slugger Hunter Renfroe represent the first wave of young talent; Renfroe was the Pacific Coast League’s regular season MVP last year, and Margot was MVP of the league’s championship series.

Renfroe already has his 20 home runs this year, including a second ball deposited on the roof of Petco Park’s Western Metal Supply Building a couple of weeks ago.

But Margot has the better overall numbers: A .272 average, .309 on-base percentage (which could be better, since he has only 18 walks in 327 at-bats) and .443 slugging percentage, plus 12 doubles, 12 triples, 11 steals (in 17 attempts) and 34 runs scored in 81 games. He was on the disabled list with a sprained calf from late May to late June, and was on paternity leave in late July to be with his wife when she gave birth to their son.

Right now the Padres resemble a baseball incubator, and likely will continue to at least through the end of 2018. The youngsters are learning on the job, and although the club is 51-64, there are nights like Friday when the glimpses are tantalizing.

You see it when Jose Pirela can rebound from two strikeouts and a weak grounder to hit the game-winning homer. Or when Brad Hand — the left-handed reliever everyone wanted but no one was willing to pay a king’s ransom to get — comes back from a crucial grand slam the day before to get a four-out save, which included wading through Corey Seager, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger in the ninth inning.

It’s good that the kids have each other for support.

“It’s a process of learning,” Margot said. “The more you work and the more you learn and the more you try to absorb in this game, and in this business, you’re going to be better.

“That means listening to your teammates. It means listening to everyone.”

His manager sees the progress.

“He’s starting to put himself in a better position to hit,” Green said. “He’s starting to stay centered on breaking balls. Rich Hill’s breaking ball is a tough one to hit period, much less hit it out of the ballpark.

“I think we’re excited about what he’s doing and the way he competes.”

Two days after returning from the paternity list, July 24, he went on a 10-for-16 tear that also started that surge of home runs. Since then he’s hitting .333 (22 for 66) with 11 runs, 13 RBI and a .333 on-base percentage, plus three doubles and the aforementioned seven homers.

It’s a hot streak but it also suggests the potential to be tapped, and the possibilities down the road if these youngsters really are as good as A.J. Preller and his staff think they are.

“We have a really young team that doesn’t necessarily have the same experience as other teams,” Margot said. “But we’re working towards that and I think you see flashes. And I think ultimately we can do that in the future, where we’re … competing with this team or any other team.

“If that means ultimately thinking we can win a championship too, I think that’s on the table.”

Might as well dream big.

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