The San Diego Padres have been struggling these past two weeks. It may have started when Manny Machado rolled his ankle in Colorado last month. It could have started when the Padres blew a six run lead against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Since June 17th the club has gone 7-12. Dropping series to the Phillies, the Dodgers, the Rockies, The Mariners, an splitting with the Diamondbacks. It is understandable to be losing to the Phillies and Dodgers both playoff teams but losing to the Diamondbacks and Rockies is embarrassing. The Mariners are a hot team right now so it was not surprising to get swept by them in a two game series. Of course, every team has skids over the long haul of a 162 game season but this one feels different.
Padres Pitching
The Padres starting pitching had been the bright spot of the team so far. Joe Musgrove had been in talks of the Cy Young award. Mackenzie Gore had been in talks of the Rookie of the year award. Yu Darvish is still a fabulous pitcher. Sean Manea has been holding his own. While Blake Snell and Mike Clevinger were still finding their stride. In this two week skid however, Joe Musgrove had two starts in a row where he did not look himself. The Phillies put up six runs on Musgrove on June 23rd and then the Dodgers Justin Turner hit two homeruns off him on June 30th. Mackenzie Gore struggled with his command in back to back starts both against the Rockies. When the Padres did have a good start from their pitchers the offense couldn’t back them up with run support.
Offense
The Padres offense has been an issue all year. Other than Eric Hosmer and Manny Machado, the team has been performing way below expectation. As the hot starts of Hosmer and Machado cooled off the Padres were getting just enough run support to keep their winning ways moving along. However, when the pitching started to regress back to the norms the offense did nothing to help the rotation out. Offensive struggles from Luke Voit are prevalent as he just does not make adjustments on his swing. Trent Grisham can run into a homerun every once in awhile but his bunting seems to be his biggest offensive weapon. Right Field has been a glaring hole as Wil Myers is not worth 20 million dollars and Nomar Mazara just has no power.
Trade Talks
As the injuries pile up and the backup players start to get more playing time the fans have been calling for a trade. Specifically a big bat to put in the lineup. Talks about getting Bryan Reynolds from the Pirates have been murmured. Rumors of Wilson Contreras the Cubs catcher have surfaced. The radio stations are going nuts about a potential deal to snag Shohei Ohtani from the Angels. Talks about the Orioles Trey Mancini are still prevalent and Ramon Laureano for the Athletics could be a viable option. A sneaky pickup from within the division, the Diamondbacks, could potentially see David Peralta in San Diego, but that seems unlikely.
Most trade talks surrounding the Padres are about the outfielders. As the gruesome injury to Jurickson Profar took place recently the outfield bats are not holding up their offensive necessities. Rumors that Fernando Tatis Jr. will slide into a outfield spot when he returns are still swirling. However, Tatis signed as a shortstop and I believe he will be playing shortstop when he gets back. Big questions are boiling up as the All-Star break is around the corner and the trade deadline of August 2nd looms, A.J. Preller will make a move to help out the Padres. Preller is well known to be creative around the deadline and isn’t scared of making a huge trade. Speculation on what Preller is thinking will continue to swirl but only time will tell.