The San Diego Padres had one of their best seasons in recent memory last year, by making the playoffs for the first time since 2006 and with the moves that were made this offseason, they hope to continue with that success. The Padres have never been a dominant team in the MLB only having six playoff appearances and two pennants and zero World Series titles since joining the league back in 1969, but if any Padres team can do it, it’s this team.
Last season the Padres ended with a 37-23 record finishing 2nd in the NL West. They made a decent playoff run defeating the St. Louis Cardinals, however, lost in the next round to the soon to be World Series champs Los Angeles Dodgers. The team now brings back their stars from last year and made a huge splash during the offseason to compete for a world championship.
Clearly one of the biggest moves of the offseason for the San Diego Padres was to make sure that they would not lose their young shortstop superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. Tatis last year only missed one game in the 60 game season and during that time batted .277 with 62 hits, 17 home runs, and 45 RBI’s. This performance put him 4th in last year’s MVP voting, but more importantly landed him a 14 year, 340 million dollar contract that will keep him in San Diego until he is 35 years old.
Another heavy bat that San Diego will have back for the season is Manny Machado. This will be Machado’s third season with the Padres after signing a ten year contract with the team back in 2019. Machado was another huge reason for the success that Slam Diego had last year batting .304, with 68 hits, 16 home runs, and 47 RBI’s.
It’s not just the hitting out in San Diego that is all the talk, the pitching is not something to think of lightly. The Padres bring back their Ace from last year Dinelson Lamet who finished with a 3-1 record, with 93 strikeouts and a 2.09 ERA throughout 12 starts. The Padres were also able to ink a deal with Mike Clevinger who the Padres traded for last season at the trade deadline. However, after a season ending injury last year, Clevinger had to get Tommy John Surgery and will be out for the 2021 season.
With Clevinger out, San Diego had to go and get help for the pitching staff and that’s exactly what they did. With two separate trades the Padres were able to acquire Yu Darvis from the Chicago Cubs, and Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays.
With Spring Training now under way in Arizona, the question that comes to fans minds when thinking about this team is can I watch them in person this year. While that is still up in the air as the Padres and Petco Park are still working with the state of California to have fans for the games, it does seem possible that at one point during the season, Petco Park will allow up to 10,000 fans to attend the game.
The San Diego Padres haven’t made the playoffs back to back years since 2005-2006, but with this new and improved roster from last year it is likely that the Padres could slam their way into the playoffs and maybe even find themselves playing in the World Series.
