Count out the San Diego Padres at your own peril.
A team that was supposed to go belly up not only this season, but last year as well, has refused to walk away quietly. And to their credit, the Padres seem to be getting better.
While plenty has been made of the 8-0 start from the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the Padres have opened 7-0 in what might be an even bigger statement than the one their rivals just up the freeway are making.
The club was supposed to go nowhere last season, of course. San Diego saw both left-hander Blake Snell and outfielder Juan Soto depart, leaving a pair of voids seemingly impossible to replace. When they opened the season 3-9 and were three games under .500 in mid-June, there was little surprise.
And yet the Padres went on a 19-3 run immediately after the All-Star break and strutted into the playoffs, where they brushed off the Atlanta Braves in the wild-card round. They had the Dodgers on the ropes with a 2-1 lead in the division series.
But the offense collapsed to close out the NLDS, and it was the Dodgers who used their momentum to win the World Series. There were multiple members of the Dodgers who looked back at that playoff series against the Padres and called it the toughest matchup they had.
L.A. manager Dave Roberts called it the real World Series, in hindsight. Roberts and Mookie Betts agreed that the Padres had the most complete roster of any playoff team — not the Dodgers.
The Padres countered the loss of Soto with quality seasons from Jake Cronenworth, Jurickson Profar and rookie Jackson Merrill — not to mention what Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. supplied. Dylan Cease stepped into the Snell void to deliver a 3.47 ERA in 33 starts while finishing fourth in National League Cy Young Award voting.
This past offseason, the Padres saw more key departures. Not only did Profar and Ha-Seong Kim leave, but one of the best relievers in baseball — left-hander Tanner Scott — departed for the Dodgers, of all teams.
Call them zombies, because the Padres can’t be put away. They swept the Braves to start the current season, and they brushed away the Cleveland Guardians next. The Padres are not only off to the best start in franchise history, they added to the feel-good aura by signing Merrill to a nine-year contract extension on Wednesday.
“It’s just good baseball every night. Guys are on point in every area,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said after a 5-2 victory over the Guardians on Wednesday.
Not only did the Padres announce Merrill’s contract extension Wednesday morning, the man of the hour even hit a home run in that afternoon’s series finale.
At the rate players are getting paid, Merrill’s $135 million deal seems like a steal.
Tatis has returned to the leadoff spot and opened the season batting .432 over the first seven games with a 1.061 OPS and seven runs scored. Machado was batting .400, while Merrill was at .417 with a team-best two home runs.
After one week, the Padres were tied for sixth in the major leagues with 36 runs scored. The pitching staff was fifth with a 1.57 ERA. The starters were sixth with a 2.23 mark, while the bullpen had an MLB-best 0.68 ERA through seven games to show that life without Scott is going just fine.
Up next for the Padres is a road trip that has stops in Chicago to face the Cubs and Sacramento to meet the relocated Athletics. The Padres won’t face a 2024 playoff team again until they hit the road for a series opener April 18 against the Houston Astros. They won’t face an NL playoff team again until a rematch with the Braves starting May 23.
And after a long wait, they finally get a test against the Dodgers on June 9–11 at Los Angeles and June 16–19 for four games against the World Series champions in L.A.
Maybe by then the roster departures from the past two offseasons will have taken a toll and a feel-good story will be no more. But don’t count on it.
