I think it is a very big deal that the Padres, despite the droughts in production or pitching luck or anything, were able to persist in the postseason conversation this year. They were never going to be a first place team, because the Dodgers were always going to be better. They were never a lock for 2nd because of the D-Backs. It took Fernando Tatis a while to start hitting home runs and now he's got 21. It's a testament to the persistence of this team that they stayed in it, to the point where they're very much in the race for that last wild card spot, despite so much of it just not working.
Like...there's a lot of half-seasons that were good, but not a lot of full campaigns were. Other than Ty France, Michael King, Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon, everybody either crapped out after the first half or didn't start til the second. Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill, Walker Buehler and Luis Campusano are finishing with halfway decent seasons, and it's doing a lot to erase their struggles from earlier on. Machado is hitting .221 now, but was hitting .190 for most of the first half. If he didn't also have 27 homers and 82 RBIs, seasonably great numbers for the future Hall of Famer, he'd get a lot more criticism. Same with Merrill, whose 2nd half has erased any doubts people had about his trajectory. Merrill hit 25 homers and 82 RBIs, plus 26 stolen bases. If the Padres make the postseason, Merrill might be the most dangerous part of the team.
I also think the bullpen has built on 2025, which is weird to say about a team that had 4 relievers make the all-star team. Miller's elite, but we knew that. Beyond that, Adrian Morejon's having another fantastic year as a setup man/relief specialist, with 9 wins, 100 strikeouts, a 2.70 ERA and a 1.8 WAR. Morejon is commanding, consistent, and reliable, and since joining the bullpen full time in 2024, he's been one of the most crucial pieces of these Padres teams. Without Jason Adam or Robert Suarez this year, he needed to step up, and he very much did. Yuki Matsui, Bradgley Rodriguez and Wandy Peralta have provided stability behind him.
There's gonna be some worry about how the rotation holds up, because Randy Vasquez is very streaky, Walker Buehler's not as good as he was in 2019, and Robbie Ray and Casey Mize have struggled since the deadline, but...Nick Pivetta just came back and he's been very strong, being part of two wins, and only allowing 2 runs. In a postseason scenario, it would be Michael King, Nick Pivetta and Robbie Ray, and that's honestly a pretty nice rotation. If Ray can firm up in the postseason, which seems likely, they could be a match for whoever they go against [probably Atlanta at this rate].
This only happens if they stay ahead of the Diamondbacks, which I honestly think is possible, given how much momentum they've built up in the past few weeks. They're 2.5 games up as the D-Backs are imploding, have the Rockies and Marlins all week, and hopefully by the time the Padres have to play their division rivals again to finish off the season, they'll have enough of a cushion to secure that postseason spot. I don't know how far they'll get, but...considering I didn't expect them to get this far, who knows.
Coming Tonight: He didn't have a very good season, as the centerpiece of a team needing a real homegrown hero. Luckily the team didn't need him to be great, they just needed him to be there.
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