Last but not least, Alex Hoad joins us to preview the season for his San Diego Padres. After a nightmare finish to 2024, will the the Padres return to the Crone Zone in 2025?
What happened in 2024?
Just about everything, if we’re honest.
Despite cutting nearly $100m in payroll, the Friars put together a 93-win regular season – the second-best in the team’s 55-year history.
There was a slow start and plenty of frustration along the way, but GM AJ Preller made things happen, bringing in Dylan Cease on the eve of the Opening Series in Seoul, traded for Luis Arraez to hit like only he can, and shored up the bullpen, which was giving Pads fans kittens throughout the spring.
There were some incredible moments – not least Cease throwing a no-hitter in Washington in July. This was just the second in Padres history, which happily coincided with the first ever Padres UK get-together in London.
Against the odds the Pads took the race for the NL West title all the way to the final week of the season, eventually clinching their post-season berth courtesy of a walk-off triple play at Dodger Stadium in September.
In the end it was a case of what might have been. A genuinely sickening 24-inning scoreless run saw the Padres cough-up a 2-1 lead in the NLDS, losing to the Dodgers who went on to win their first real World Series title in 36 years.
It felt at the time, and still does, like had the Padres got through that LA series, their wait for a first World Series might just have come to an end. But, for now, the wait goes on…
Big offseason news
There was plenty, but none of it was particularly good.
Joe Musgrove will miss the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery (though let’s check back on his status in late September, you never know…) while Yu Darvish picked up an elbow issue in Spring Training which will see him start the season on the IL.
After a brief, distasteful issue with arbitration, Michael King was eventually re-signed for his final year before hitting free agency and has rightly been installed as the Padres Opening Day starter. He’ll forever be known as a piece of the Juan Soto trade, but given his stellar 2024 showing in brown and gold after a slightly sluggish start, it might yet end up looking like one of the best bits of business AJ Preller has concocted in years. King was in the discussion for the NL Cy Young and posted an ERA of 2.03 across his final 14 starts in addition to impressive performances in the post-season.
Cease will be the number two starter despite a shaky post-season showing which was miles away from his regular season dominance. He too will be a free agent after this season. It feels like the rest of the rotation might need some run support, unless Ruben Niebla has a few more tricks up his sleeve. Randy Vasquez, Nick Pivetta and Kyle Hart – last season’s ‘Cy Young’ winner in Korea – won the race for the rotation spots, with Stephen Kolek perhaps a tad unfortunate to start the season in AAA after some exciting stuff in Spring Training.
Oh – the Dodgers did some things. They won the race for Roki Sasaki, a race which the Padres seemingly did not really line up for due to an incredibly ugly and public ownership battle between late-owner Peter Seidler’s family and his widow Sheel. Words like relocation and cutting payroll were briefly floating around, deepening the gloom among the Friar Faithful. All Star rental Tanner Scott swapped the Padres bullpen for the Dodgers too, and former ace Blake Snell also opted to head to Chavez Ravine to ensure numerous opportunities to reacquaint himself with his former teammates and fans this season.
Scott notwithstanding, the Padres bullpen remains largely intact, with big Bob Suarez, Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada looking key to keeping the Friars on track for the postseason.
With Kyle Higashioka moving on after an unexpectedly brilliant season, Elias Diaz will start the season behind the dish, with veteran Martin Maldonado seeing-off Luis Campusano for the back-up role. Another veteran, Jason Heyward, has arrived and will likely platoon with speedster Brandon Lockridge in left field, though Jurickson Profar will be missed, for vibes and clubhouse chemistry as much as his surprisingly productive numbers last season.
The infield looks to be fairly settled with Manny Machado posting a clean bill of health for once, Luis Arraez aiming to become the first man since Tony Gwynn to win four straight batting titles having had surgery on a pesky thumb problem in the off season, and Jake Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts having another crack at living up to their hefty contracts while playing in their preferred positions of second base and short stop. No more excuses.
Finally, Yuli Gurriel and Gavin Sheets have made the roster after impressing in Arizona this spring while Jose Iglesias might just make up the vibe-shortfall left by Profar’s departure.
One to watch
Jackson Merrill was not a name known by many outside of the San Diego organisation a year ago but the short-stop converted to centre fielder took to the Majors like a rally goose to water after being handed a surprise start on Opening Day.
He became one of the first names on the line-up and produced back-to-back NL Rookie of the Month awards in July and August, hitting seven dingers in August alone and 12 in the back-end of the regular season. He might consider himself a touch unfortunate to lose out to Paul Skenes in the NL Rookie of the Year race, but if he can channel that disappointment and take a step forward he’ll establish himself among the best in the game.
Reasons for optimism
It’s hard to fathom a more painful conclusion to a season than the one the Padres experienced in 2024. It’s the hope that kills you, we all know that. Many of us really thought 2024 was finally San Diego’s time. Some of us even had bags packed for the airport ahead of Game Five of the NLDS. It turned out that Fernando Tatis Jr’s two-run HR which gave the Padres a 6-1 lead in the second inning of game three in LA were the final runs they scored that season. After seeing-out a 6-5 win they lost 8-0 and 2-0 in the final two games of a series which, to be honest, was one of the most Box Office, on and off the field, in recent memory.
‘If’ remains the biggest two-letter word in sport, but IF the squad can channel the bitter sting of that disappointment this season, then there’s surely no more powerful fuel for another postseason run.
Skipper Mike Shildt was handed a new contract, as was pitching coach Ruben Niebla, and the message is that the Dads have ‘unfinished business’ which seems like an understatement.
Fernando Tatis Jr is healthy. He has missed a considerable amount of time over the past three seasons due to injuries and suspension, but remained very productive, both at the plate and in right field, while playing through a right thigh injury in 2024. When the lights shine brightest, in the play-offs, he came to play – especially at Dodger Stadium – and if San Diego are to achieve anything of note they will need him healthy and playing with the swagger which elevates him into the MVP discussion.
2025 prediction
The Dodgers will win the NL West. Bold, huh? Here’s the thing, though – the main reason Los Angeles have assembled what is arguably the best and deepest team in the history of the sport is because of the noisy little upstart down the I5.
Gone are the days when San Diego was a perennial 90-loss laughing stock. Sure, people still laugh when they found a way to fall short when it mattered most, but with a smidge of respect to the Diamondbacks, who look good again, the Dodgers would not be who they are today without the Padres of the past few years. There is no Yin without Yang… without good, there is no evil.
The entire 2025 Padres season is geared towards beating the ‘Dragon up the Freeway’ as the much-missed Peter Seidler called the Dodgers. It likely won’t be over 162 games – though we did win the season series last year!- but they have shown they are capable of matching them, at least, over a best of five or seven-game series.
If the Padres can stay healthy and keep it together enough to secure a wild card spot – I’m thinking 85-90 wins – and then find a way, any way, to see-off LA in October then just maybe, the wait might finally be over…
You can follow Alex on X at @AlexHoadSport. Fancy writing for us? Get in touch here!
Featured image of Jake Cronenworth by Brandon Sloter/Getty Images
