Padres Sign Power Hitting Bridgeport Bluefish INF Cody Overbeck

San Diego, CA- The San Diego Padres have signed Bridgeport Bluefish power hitting infielder Cody Overbeck  of the Independent Atlantic League. Overbeck will be assigned to Double-A San Antonio. Overbeck is the third member of the Bridgeport Bluefish to sign with a major league organization this season. The other two being were right handed pitcher Julio Rodriguez, who signed with the Chicago Cubs, and outfielder Brandon Boggs, who signed with the Atlanta Braves.

Overbeck, 27, is a power hitting 1B/3B who was the main run producer for the Bluefish. Overbeck had hit safely in 18 of his past 20 games and was batting .276 on the season with seven home runs and 23 RBI’s.

Prior to signing with the Bluefish, Cody Overbeck had spent six seasons in the Philadelphia Phillies organization since being drafted by them in the 9th round of the 2008 MLB Draft out of the University of Mississippi. Overbeck in his six seasons in the minor leagues batted a career .261 with 112 home runs and 421 RBI’s. Overbeck had spent last three seasons in AAA and batted .255 with a career-high 29 doubles, 19 home runs and 65 RBIs.

Overall Cody Overbeck has been an older prospect with a great list of minor league accomplishments who the Phillies simply doesn’t have full confidence in to provide a shot at the big leagues. Similar to former Padres prospect Matt Clark who annually put up 20 plus homerun seasons for the Padres in Triple-A, but never got a shot in the Big Leagues and eventually left the Padres last season to play in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons of the Japan Central League.

For the Padres this is basically and organizational depth signing. Cody Overbeck will provide hopefully some offensive pop to our Double-A and possibly eventually Triple-A team. Except with the way the Padres offense has performed this season if Overbeck puts up the numbers he was producing for the Bluefish, heck maybe he’ll get his long awaited shot at the Major Leagues this season.