I am not sure that any team has had as much turnover as the San Diego Padres. Free agents after the season include:
- Blake Snell – LHSP
- Josh Hader – LHRP (Closer)
- Seth Lugo – RHSP
- Michael Wacha – RHSP
- Nick Martinez – RHP
- Luis Garcia – RHRP
- Tim Hill – LHRP
- Garrett Cooper – OF/1B – Late season addition
- Jurickson Profar – OF
- Gary Sanchez – Backup catcher
- Austin Nola – Starting catcher at beginning of season
- Ji Man Choi – 1B – Late season addition – Is not a loss
- Drew Pomeranz – LHRP – Has not pitched since 2021
- Rich Hill – LHSP – Late season addition – Is not a loss
- Taylor Kohlwey – OF – Played most of year at AAA
In addition, the Padres traded their star OF, Juan Soto, to NYY. Trent Grisham was included in that transaction, thus the for a bevy of good players, but certainly not at the level of what they gave away. This was a significant cost cutting transaction.
SD received a pair of MLB pitchers who should be in the starting rotation: 29 year old Michael King and 26 year old Jhony Brito. – 1B also received a pair of RHP prospects: 23 year old Drew Thorpe (SD #6 prospect) and 25 year old Randy Vásquez (SD #15 prospect). And finally they received a light hitting backup catcher, Kyle Higashioka (34 years old).
As a reminder, the Padres sent the following to Washington for Soto and 1B Josh Bell:
- 1B Luke Voit – Released by NYM August 2023
- SS C.J. Abrams – Starting SS for Washington
- LHP MacKenzie Gore – #2 Starter for Washington
- OF James Wood – Top 10 overall OF prospect (21 year old) (Washington #2 prospect)
- OF Robert Hassell III – Former 1st round pick, who seems to be regressing (Washington #8 prospect).
- RHP Jarlin Susana – Hard thrower that needs time to develop. (Washington #12 prospect).
San Diego also traded Scott Barlow to Cleveland for 28 year old RHRP Enyel De Los Santos. De Los Santos is a good reliever, and is an improvement over Barlow, but he is nowhere close to replacing Josh Hader.
The Padres have lost four of their top six SP: Snell, Lugo, Wacha, and Martinez. They lost their closer. They also lost two of three starting OF: Soto and Grisham. And they lost their late season acquisition utility OF, Jurickson Profar.
While they have replaced their backup catcher, I am not sure that Higashioka is an upgrade over Gary Sánchez.
The Padres have lost quite a bit of their lineup, starting rotation, and bullpen that was expected to challenge the Dodgers for the NL West in 2023.
The Padres did sign a pair of free agent relievers:
Again neither are going to replace Josh Hader or even Luis Garcia.
The Padres have SIGNIFICANT cash concerns. MLB took over San Diego’s telecasts from Daimond Sports Group once they failed to make a May 30 payment. The future payments are not guaranteed at 100%.
MLB announced Tuesday night that fans in the Padres’ home television market will be able to watch games on DirecTV, Cox, Spectrum, AT&T U-Verse and fubo. MLB will also offer a direct-to-consumer streaming subscription for $19.99 per month or $74.99 for the rest of the season by registering at MLB.TV.
Here is an article about the demise of the Padres RSN.
https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2023/6/2/23745831/padres-entering-brave-new-world-local-tv-broadcasts
With the amount of the future broadcast revenues in doubt, and the Padres in more debt than allowed by MLB, their payroll had to take a big reduction. Thus the Soto (and Grisham) trade, the lack of high level free agents being considered (including those they lost), and the reports of Jake Cronenworth and Ha-Seong Kim being potential trades for additional cash savings.
Thus the lineups will have a distinct difference from 2023 (and subject to change before ST).
1B – Jake Cronenworth
2B – Ha-Seong Kim
3B – Matthew Batten
SS – Xander Bogaerts
LF – Cal Mitchell (MiLB with ST Invite)
CF – José Azocar
RF – Fernando Tatis, Jr.
DH – Manny Machado
Bench:
C – Kyle Higashioka
INF – Eguy Rosario
OF – Bryce Johnson
OF – Óscar Mercado
Starting Rotation:
Joe Musgrove – RHP
Yu Darvish – RHP
Michael King – RHP
Pedro Avila – RHP
Randy Vásquez – RHP
Relievers:
Robert Suarez – RHP
Yuki Matsui – LHP
Enyel De Los Santos
Woo Suk Go – RHP
Tom Cosgrove – LHP
Steven Wilson – RHP
Adrián Morejón – LHP
Luis Patiño – RHP
Padres All-Star third baseman Manny Machado was relegated to designated hitter for the entirety of September due to an injury to his right (throwing) elbow and now he’s had surgery to address the problem. The Padres announced that he had a procedure to repair the extensor tendon. The Padres have said that the recovery timeline is four to six months, which puts his Opening Day availability up in the air.
The Padres have a depleted lineup for 2024, but they do have a top 5 farm system with 6 top 100 prospects. They are in a position to being able to make a significant trade at the deadline if they are in any way smelling a post season berth. Doubtful, but so was Arizona last year.
Nobody cares about those idiots, fuck them!
You know, maybe it’s my lack of empathy but I can never really tell how Jorge feels about the Pads.
Solid take Jorge.
I won’t go quite that far. They had an owner that went for it. Didn’t work out. Now what? Probably back to middle of the pack in attendance.
Maybe this is going to be one of those teams that doesn’t play well as the favorite but plays better as an underdog. They’ll certainly have a chance to test that theory in 2024 but as you mentioned, with a very good, rebuilt farm system, who knows what Preller might pull off at the deadline.
Pads not the real threat, that is Arizona. Giants and Rockies not even in the conversation.
I dont know Arizona won 84 games last year.
They got hot at the end…not too worried about them.
We were 16 games better than them over 162…..yeah I know about the 3 games at the end.
Give me LA and twice on Sunday.
Don’t sleep on Michael King. He’s got a lively arm.
Sort of feel sorry for Padres fans. A team of underachievers.
Among their other recent losses was an owner who was willing to spend $$…
In other news, Joc is reportedly joining the D’backs, apparently as part of a DH platoon.
Who took over ownership of the Padres
My 14-year-old son, the crafty southpaw, likes various baseball sites on YouTube. We stumbled upon one by the wonky Foolish Baseball guy who did a deep data-driven dive into why Freddie Freeman is one of the best baserunners in the game even though he isn’t that fast.
Both Mookie and Freddie are excellent baserunners, which is among the reasons I want Shohei batting third, though he’s the fastest.
Visions of three-run homers dancing in my head.
Dodgers 100
Dbacks 85
Padres. 81
giants. 79
Rockies. 65
Padres still have some solid middle order hitters. Who knows how good the pitching might be. The dbacks only win 84 last year. Are they better now? giants? Blah.
The only real question, which can’t be answered in January, is how will the Dodgers play in October.
Only 100? After investing more than $1 billion in free agents and acquisitions?
I’ll bid 105, with Dbacks at 90.
Ballpark figures all.
I hope we beat them 20-0 every game. Crank the neck.
Spending for star players,filling the seats and even winning games alone doesn’t guarantee profitability. San Diego has proven that. Tons of businesses havr good products and fail. Making money from sales,tv and who knows what else is also needed.
The Dodgers are about to show us how that is done by marketing Ohtani and Yamamoto to pay for their salaries.
Spending lots of money is no guarantee of sustained success.
Depends on your definition of success.
I love how the Padres went for it.
I admire how they keep coming up with good minor league talent.
I hope they do well.
I extremely dislike the Padres (not as much as Jorge), especially the arrogant fans of a team that has exactly 0 WS Championships. But I too like that under Peter Seidler they decided to throw caution to the wind and “go for it”. I think their problem was that they were signing too many SS and trying to find spaces for them on the field. IMO they signed Bogaerts so that the Dodgers would not be tempted (not that they were). Tatis, Machado, Kim, Cronenworth, Bogaerts are all current or former SS. Soto is a Superstar they spent tremendous prospect capital on. He carried them on his back the last two years. With Snell, Musgrove, and Darvish, they had pitching. And with Hader, they had a weapon at the end of a game. I am glad we did not have to find out, but I wonder how that dugout chemistry would have been without Manny Machado who is a curse wherever he plays.
They are chumps and pretenders. Soft fan base and sellers this year.
I don’t hate or dislike the Padres but I don’t like Machado. The only teams I truly hate are the Asstros and Michigan Wolverines. Both cheaters.
I’m with you on Machado.
I don’t hate any sports teams. I just hope the giants, cowboys, celtics and astros all fail miserably from now until forever.
I agree. Was it their fault their TV revenue faucet was turned off? Maybe?
When Texas signed RHRP David Robertson to a one year $11MM-$12MM contract, that put them over the CBT threshold (by about $4MM). That pretty much takes them out of the Jordan Montgomery (and Clayton Kershaw?) sweepstakes.
The Dodgers are not the only team that wastes prospects waiting on the vine. When the D-backs signed Joc Pederson, that sent 26 year old LH hitting OF, Dominic Fletcher back to Reno. The one skill set that Dominic is missing in today’s game is power. He is a 5’6” 185 pound CF/RF with a 65 arm and 65 field. He is also a LH hitting defensive OF with Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, and Jake McCarthy, all left hand hitting superior defensive OF ahead of him. He is blocked.
Dominic, who is the brother of David Fletcher, was the competitive balance pick for Arizona in the 2019 draft (#75 overall) out of Arkansas.
Last year in his cup of coffee MLB debut (102 PA), he hit a solid .301/.350/.441/.791. Only 5 doubles, 1 triple, and 2 HR. However he only struck out at a 21.6% rate and a 6.9% rate. His rookie status is still intact.
He also has nothing left to prove in MiLB. In 1,604 PA, Fletcher has hit .295/.366/.474/.840, with only 42 HR, but with a 20.8% strikeout and a 9% BB rate. That is his game. If they are waiting for him to develop his power, they might as well move him. He still has 2 options remaining.
I’ll take Fletcher. We could always use some minor league depth in the outfield and who knows, he might actually be of some help with the big club in case of injuries. Unless I’m missing someone, the only lefty hitting outfielders we have are Outman and JHey.
Always liked David Fletcher and never knew about Dominic. Not sure we’ll have roster space for Yarbrough now that we have Paxton. Might be an overpay but I’m willing to do that trade. Or if not Yarbrough, then maybe Grove.
He would still be AAA OF this year with LAD, but then it could open up. Heyward, Margot, and Hernández are on their last year of their contracts, although Margot has an option they might not exercise. If the D-backs are willing to trade with LAD, I would like to see if there was a match to get Fletcher. He is not going to be an AS, but he could be a solid player with a great arm and defensive makeup especially as a #4. Every team needs a #4.
According to the Trade Simulator, Yarbrough is an underpay (.4 to 1.9), but Grove at 9.8 is a significant overpay.
Oooooh.
Get Arizona to throw in Cristofer Torin!
The Simulator likes Torin a lot.
Torin and Fletcher for Grove just about gets it there.
Or we could add Carson Taylor or Pilarski plus Yarbrough for Fletcher.
Carson Taylor was picked up in the MiLB portion of the Rule 5 draft.
Forgot about that. If AF wanted Fletcher I’m sure he could come up with a deal they’d accept.
A couple of current Gavin Lux quotes on his status and perceived role.
Revolution #9
Everyone of them knew that as time went by
They’d get a little bit older and a little bit slower but
Lux gives good quotes. Always has.