51s’ Padilla has majors on his mind

51s center fielder Jorge Padilla was mired in the minor leagues for 12 years before finally getting the chance to play for the Washington Nationals last year.

The experience has only increased Padilla's desire to get back to the big leagues.

"That's a beautiful thing. Once you have a taste, you forget about the minor leagues," Padilla said Friday before going 2-for-4 with a home run in Las Vegas' 7-1 loss to the Fresno Grizzlies at Cashman Field.

Padilla, 30, hit a career-high .367 in 95 games for Triple-A Syracuse last year before getting called up to Washington, which used him primarily as a late-inning defensive replacement in 29 games. He hit only .120, going 3-for-25.

Las Vegas manager Dan Rohn said Padilla probably has the best outfield arm on the 51s and is also their fastest base runner.

"He's one of our better athletes," Rohn said. "He plays solid defense."

Rohn said a lack of power is probably what prevented the 6-foot-1-inch, 215-pound Padilla from reaching the majors sooner.

"The outfield positions are prime power numbers spots, and he hasn't really put any power (numbers) up," he said. "They're looking for a guy with that kind of size to drive the ball a little more."

As if on cue, Padilla launched a solo homer over the left-field wall to account for the 51s' lone run Friday. After going homerless in his first 27 games for Las Vegas, Padilla has four in his last 13 games and is batting .315 overall with 19 RBIs for the 51s (23-33).

"He's starting to swing the bat with some authority, which I'd like to see him do more," Rohn said.

Padilla said he put too much pressure on himself to hit for power at the start of the year.

"I was trying to do too much and hit homers," he said. "You see the short fence here and the wind and you get excited and want to hit homers. But that's not me."

A third-round draftee by Philadelphia in 1998, Padilla expected to make his major league debut much sooner than he did. But the timing was never right.

"A lot of things happened to me," he said. "I got hurt at the time, or I wasn't doing good at the time.

"But I got my career back. I'm back on track."

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.