Josh Byrnes was convinced Jedd Gyorko would hit.
Like he had at West Virginia University. Like he had in the minors in Lake Elsinore and San Antonio and Tucson. Like he had as a rookie in San Diego.
Extensions weren’t without risk, but the Padres general manager believed he had history on his side on this date — April 14 — in 2014 when he signed Gyorko to a six-year, $35 million extension, the fourth such “superstar insurance” extension completed in Byrnes’ tenure.
“In the case of all those contracts,” Byrnes said in 2014, “there were good reasons they were risks worth taking.