If you heard a loud splash in the offseason, it was the San Diego’s front office making offseason moves adding to their already impressive arsenal. The Padres were a sub-par team for over a decade, nearly 14 years to be more exact. After all of these disappointing seasons, the Padres not only made the playoffs, but advanced by defeating the Cardinals in the NL Wildcard Series before losing to the eventual World Series Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers behind their main piece Manny Machado. After seeing what they have with their leader Machado, the Padres realized that they have something special and opened up their checkbook to go for all the marbles.
Offseason Acquisitions
With a slew of acquisitions made by the front office, I will start with the pitchers they acquired to bolster their rotation.
In no particular order, the first pitcher they acquired this offseason was the runner-up in last year’s Cy Young voting and former Cub, Yu Darvish. Coming to San Diego with him in the trade was catcher Caratini which should help ease the transition for the Darvish. After having excellent season last year, he will look to continue his pitching with his new team as he goes for another ring.
The Padres add another ace starting pitcher to the lineup. The lefty and 2018 Cy Young award winner Blake Snell is traded from Rays to the Padres. However, the Snell trade did not come cheap as they depart with a relatively decent prospect Patino who has a lot of upside. However, Padres are in a win-now mode and Snell brings a ton of experience to their rotation and being a top left-handed pitcher certainly helps.
Adding to the rotation doesn’t stop there, the Padres fired off another trade with the Pirates to acquire Joe Musgrove for four prospects. When you are in win-now and the Pirates are rebuilding, the addition of Musgrove to fill out the rotation makes sense and giving up prospects is the price. Despite the failures of the Pirates as a whole, Musgrove was stable and should fill out nicely with a team that can field and hit well.
The Padres also made a mega deal with their young star Tatis Jr to a fourteen-year deal. The 22-year-old shortstop signs the third-largest deal in MLB history. Tatis Jr is already in his prime at his young age and the Padres made it clear as day they want him in San Diego for the long term knowing he can do it all. Expect bigs things from Tatis Jr as money will no longer be an issue for the remainder of his career.
The splashes in free agency do not end there, Ha-Seong Kim is coming from the KBO after an amazing season and nearly every team in the MLB wanted him. However, the Padres win the Kim sweepstakes and lock up the former KBO player for the next four years. Kim was a top KBO player in the league last year going for .306/.397/.523 and launching 30 home runs.
Season Projections
The Padres proved they have what it takes to be relevant in the league once again last season by advancing in the playoffs. That momentum should easily carry over to this season as the new bar should be set on making the World Series based on all the offseason moves they made. They now have the talent to compete against any team. It should be expected that the Padres come out a little slow to start the season as all of the players adjust to the new team so fans do not need to panic at the beginning if that is the case.
I project the Padres to finish strong in the regular season and reach a record of 95-67 and have one the best records in baseball as they have the rotation and firepower to do so. Reaching the World Series usually goes to the hottest teams in baseball at the time, not necessarily the best team. However, the Padres have the talent to remain relevant and make a deep playoff run, even if they aren’t the hottest team. I do expect a slow start that will turn into them getting hot late leading to a deep playoff run and possibly even a World Series appearance. A wager on the Padres to win it all should be placed.
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