His twelve home runs & 67 RBIs for the Amarillo Gold Sox in 1976 earned him a September call up to the Padres.

[2] The Padres experimented with Gene Tenace & Dave Kingman (acquired for Valentine) at third before calling Ashford back up at the beginning of July.

In 1978, new manager Roger Craig awarded the third base job to the Padres' number one overall pick in the 1974 Major League Baseball draft, Bill Almon.

After spending all of 1979 in triple A, Ashford was traded to the Texas Rangers with Gaylord Perry & minor leaguer Joe Carroll for Willie Montañez.

[5] Once again, he spent all of 1980 in triple A with the Charleston Charlies, with the exception of a brief call up to the majors when starting third baseman Buddy Bell sustained an injury.

A poor performance in Spring training took Ashford "out of the picture" for 1982, according to Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

[11] He earned a spot on the Royals' bench to start the season, but after batting just .154 through nine games, he was sold to the Baltimore Orioles.