The San Diego Padres‘ present got a lot better last week when they

PEORIA Blaine Boyer Jersey , Ariz. (AP) — signed Manny Machado to play third base.The future up the middle looks very bright as well, with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Urias coming through the system.Both were in the Padres’ lineup on Sunday when San Diego played the Chicago White Sox in spring training. Urias, batting second, went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts but made a sparkling play in the field to take an infield hit away from Ryan Goins. Tatis, in the fifth spot, was 0 for 1 with a walk, and scored on the second of Aderlin Rodriguez’s two-run homers in a 5-4 Padres victory.“He’s unreal,” Urias said of Tatis. “He has a lot of energy and he brings a lot of that to the team. He can do it all.”But Urias figures to come first. The 21-year-old from Mexico has been a second baseman since he signed with the Padres, but may open the season at shortstop with the veteran Ian Kinsler brought in to play second base this season for San Diego.“I’m just starting to keep my routine,” Urias said. “I don’t know where I’m going to play short or second. I’ve been playing second base most of the time. I signed as a shortstop but I don’t mind playing either one.”Soon, though, the 20-year-old Tatis will be joining him.Tatis is the No. 2-ranked prospect in baseball according to MLB.com and Baseball America. His father was a third baseman in the majors and once hit two grand slams in one inning for the St. Louis Cardinals. Tatis Jr., at age 19 http://www.royalsfanproshop.com/authentic-ryan-goins-jersey , hit .286 with 16 homers at San Antonio, the Padres’ Double-A affiliate.Urias is a highly touted prospect as well. He did make a brief appearance n the big leagues last year, batting .208 with a pair of homers in 48 at-bats before being sidelined with a hamstring injury, but he says he isready to go.For his career in the minors, he has hit .306 with a .397 on-base percentage.“It’s just natural, since I was little,” Urias said of his selective strike zone. “I was kind of like the hitter who put the ball in play. I have been refining my approach every year, just trying to get better, but I know my type of game and I just want to get on base.“We’re always improving something. I’m pretty excited to be back because i hurt my hamstring at the end of the year so I’m pretty happy right now because I’m healthy,” he said.Manager Andy Green is anxious to see how well Machado can mesh with his young teammates — which could be a long-time combination for the Padres, given that Machado is only 26 and signed through 2028.“A great player is going to raise everyone else’s level of expectation of quality of play,” Green said. DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP) — Clay Buchholz had reason to wonder if his major league career was coming to an end. For a second straight offseason Melky Cabrera Jersey , he entered spring training without a job.“It was almost like last year,” Buchholz said Wednesday. “Where you didn’t know if that was it, and you weren’t going to play anymore, or what was going on.”It turned out there was still some interest in Buchholz. The 34-year-old right-hander has pitched brilliantly at times in his career — but he has also dealt with injuries and even spent time in the minors last year. Now he’s with the Toronto Blue Jays on a one-year, $3 million contract that includes plenty of inning-related performance bonuses.Buchholz pitched a decade with the Boston Red Sox, showing flashes of greatness but struggling with consistency. He threw a no-hitter in 2007 in his second major league start, then went 2-9 with a 6.75 ERA the following year. He was an All-Star in 2010 and 2013, and in the latter of those two seasons, he went 12-1 with a 1.74 ERA, eventually helping the Red Sox to a World Series title.But even that 2013 season included injury problems, and only four times has Buchholz made more than 18 starts in a season. The Red Sox traded him to Philadelphia after an unimpressive 2016, and he made only two starts for the Phillies before an arm injury that required surgery.He reached a minor league deal last March with the Kansas City Royals. Then he was released and signed a minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He made six starts in the minors in all.“I had to swallow a lot of pride last year to do that,” Buchholz said. “Sort of felt sorry for myself there for the beginning part of it Justin Verlander Jersey , but got over that pretty quick, and I’m glad I did it. It helped me. I learned some things last year about myself that I didn’t really know, and became a little bit different pitcher.”Buchholz made it back to the majors and pitched well for the Diamondbacks, going 7-2 with a 2.01 ERA in 16 starts. Then he went down in September with more arm trouble and faced another offseason of uncertainty.His deal with the Blue Jays means a return to the AL East, where his former team is coming off another World Series title. The New York Yankees are also formidable. It’s a division Buchholz is familiar with — but now he’s at the other end of the spectrum, with a Toronto team that lost 89 games last year.“You have to have a short memory in this division, with the good or the bad, because there’s always tomorrow, and each game that you play in division in the AL East, it’s a tough game,” he said. “You have to know how to take the good with the bad, and go about your business the next day.”Buchholz said he’s been throwing, and he’s hoping to get up to speed soon in his preseason preparation. The Blue Jays have Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez at the top of their rotation Houston Astros Jersey , but there’s a lot of uncertainty beyond those two.“Obviously, if I would have had this opportunity a month ago, I would have been here a month ago, and I would have been ready,” Buchholz said. “I told them I would keep throwing bullpens, and then once we progress to live BPs, then we’ll go from there, and I’ll keep an open mind with everything.”NOTES: The Blue Jays announced Wednesday they have finalized a minor league contract with RHP Bud Norris, who will report to major league spring training. … Cavan Biggio, the son of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, homered Wednesday for Toronto against the Philadelphia Phillies.