I sort of figured a Tatis-less start to the 2022 season would lead to some weird outcomes for the Padres, but this is...a different degree of strange, honestly.
First of all, the Padres are 5-3, which isn't bad at all, and they've had some very big wins over decent teams. Trouble is, three teams who've played two less games than they are ahead of them in the standings with the same W/L differential. So they're technically both a 1st place team and a 4th place team at the same time. And, I hate to say it, but they're acting like both right now.
Here's how they're acting like a 1st place team- their starting pitching is doing well, so well, in fact, that Bob Melvin is risking no-hitters in order to save innings. So that means no no-no for Yu Darvish, none for Sean Manaea. Granted, it's not like he was perfect through 7 so I can sort of understand it. Meanwhile, Manaea, having been poached from Oakland a week before the season started, is playing really well through two starts, with 13 Ks and a 1.38 ERA. Heck, a lot of their recent acquisitions, like Manaea, Taylor Rogers and Luke Voit are doing pretty well for them so far. Rogers already has 3 saves, Voit has 4 RBIs and, most shockingly, a stolen base. The moves this team made to refine the base have been working and keeping them as competitors.
And yet...they are also acting like a fourth place team. A fourth place team would have two top prospects ready to call up within the first week of the season. And having both C.J. Abrams and Mackenzie Gore up in the majors, even while being a competitor with playoff experience, is...an interesting look.
I get why, let's be clear. Tatis is hurt, Ha-Seong Kim isn't best at short and neither is Cronenworth, Abrams is apparently league ready [though he's taking a bit to get going admittedly]. Blake Snell's hurt too, as is Mike Clevinger, and while I thought that Ryan Weathers was a perfectly good starting option, Gore was a high draft pick and seems to be ready too, so in he goes. But at the same time...this shouldn't be the kind of team that requires high ranking prospects to sustain itself. Fernando Tatis, Manny Machado, Yu Darvish, Eric Hosmer and Jake Cronenworth should be enough. And yet it isn't somehow.
There have been some offensive highlights from Machado, Hosmer, Jurickson Profar and Jake Cronenworth, but a lot of people are struggling. Trent Grisham, Wil Myers, even Abrams aren't hitting much right now. At the same time, you still have Bob Melvin's 'try anything' perspective from Oakland working its way in, which is why you have former gaijin Nick Martinez starting games, and why 2 wins have gone to a reliever no one has heard of named Steven Wilson, which means a lot of this team's victories are Arriving Somewhere, But Not Here [look, SOMEONE ought to get that joke].
I'd like to think that this all evens out. It probably will. But with the Giants, Dodgers and Rockies all aiming to contend as well, they're really gonna need some strength to form in the next few months or once again the very worthy Padres are going to miss out on October.
Coming Tomorrow- A hitter for a team that has remained one of baseball's punchlines.
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