Martín Maldonado: Everything you need to know

Maldonado announced his retirement from baseball via his personal Instagram account Saturday, Chandler Rome of The Athletic reports. Maldonado first saw major-league action in 2011 with Milwaukee and proceeded to play the next 15 years in the big leagues with the Angels, Astros, Cubs, Royals, White Sox and Padres. He won a Gold Glove in 2017 with the Angels and played a key role with the Astros during their World Series run in 2022. Maldonado will hang up his cleats and end his career with a .203/.277/.343 slash line with 119 home runs and 384 RBI across 1,231 regular-season games in the majors.

The Padres selected Maldonado's contract from the Arizona Complex League Padres on Tuesday. Maldonado is one of three catchers included on the team's wild-card roster, as he'll join Luis Campusano as a backup behind Freddy Fermin while Elias Diaz (oblique) recuperates. Fermin is expected to start every game during the series versus the Cubs, per Dennis Lin of The Athletic, so Maldonado is around merely as emergency depth.

Maldonado and the Padres agreed on a minor-league contract Monday, Jeff Sanders of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Maldonado will return to San Diego's organization after being released by the team Aug. 6. The catcher is expected to head to the team's facility in Arizona to ramp back up in order to be potentially available in case of an injury down the road this season.