Bill Center, longtime sportswriter for U-T San Diego, is an employee of the Padres.

Franchy Cordero is the left-handed-hitting outfielder that the Padres have been waiting to return.

The 24-year-old Cordero, who can play all three outfield positions, has been on the injured list since April 6 with an elbow issue related to last year’s surgery. He has two homers in his first four rehab games with Triple-A El Paso and he could be close to returning to the Padres.

The loss of left-handed-hitting outfielders this spring created a situation where all of the Padres outfielders were right-handed hitters ... until Josh Naylor was promoted from El Paso on May 24.

Naylor, who turns 20 on June 22, entered Thursday riding a five-game hitting streak with two homers, seven RBIs and four runs scored. Naylor is 9-for-36 with two doubles, two homers and 10 RBIs. He is also 2-for-3 as a pinch-hitter with a two-run single.

“We believed Naylor was ready to hit Major League pitching,” Padres manager Andy Green said of the corner outfielder. “He’s shown he can also play the outfield.”

So ... what happens when Cordero returns? Do the Padres return Naylor to El Paso? Or does San Diego make an adjustment elsewhere in the outfield since Cordero can play all three positions?

Notebook
• Outfielder Franmil Reyes didn’t homer on Wednesday. But the Padres came up with several notes regarding the 23-year-old Reyes’ first 35 Major League homers. The 35 home runs came in the first 145 games of Reyes’ career. The only Padres hitter to reach 35 homers quicker was outfielder Phil Plantier in 143 games of the 1993 season. However, Reyes is the quickest to 35 homers among all the players who started their careers as a Padre. Also, Reyes hit his 19th homer this season in the season’s 58th game -- the same number of games Greg Vaughn needed to reach 19 in 1998. The only Padres hitter with more homers in the first 58 games of a season was Adrian Gonzalez with 22 in 2009.

• Right-hander Kirby Yates pitched a scoreless inning in a non-save situation on Wednesday, lowering his ERA to 1.00. Yates has allowed three runs on 16 hits and eight walks with 47 strikeouts in 27 innings. Yates has gone 22-for-22 in save opportunities with a 0.889 WHIP, a .182 opponents’ batting average, a 15.67 strikeouts per nine innings average and a 5.9-to-1 strikjeouts-to-walk average.

• Naylor’s three-run homer against the Phillies on Wednesday carries a historic footnote. He is the first Canadian-born Padres player to homer in a game started by a Canadian-born pitcher (Cal Quantrill).

• Right-hander Miguel Diaz came off the 60-day injured list (knee) on Wednesday to make his first appearance of the season. Diaz allowed a double and recorded one strikeout in a scoreless inning.