1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Thursday “Padres-Waiting on Good News:

Posted by on March 17th, 2022  •  0 Comments  • 

San Diego–Good Day–Bad Day”

 

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Where do you start in all this?

Hope springs eternal with baseball camps opening.

Maybe we will find hope for the Padres, though the last two days have not steered us in that direction.

Fernando Tatis had his wrist surgery, a bone graft with a screw inserted in his fractured left wrist.  Now we see what the extent of rehab is, 3-months to 5-months.  Not mentioned in all the conversation about El Nino is the fact his quick-powerful wrists  are so important to his power hitting talents, will that be a problem for him going forward.  And of course, still lingering out there, the reality of the shoulder  dislocations he had all last year.

The Padres first days of workouts were followed by a second day of bad news beyond Tatis.

It looked this weekend they were a lock to sign Japanese slugging star Seiya Suzuki of the Hiroshima Carp.  He spent the weekend in San Diego meeting with the Padres and spending time with Yu Darvish.  All we were waiting for was the announcement.

It came, but not what we expected.  The Cubs swept in, stole him with an 85M-deal, averaging to 17M a year.  Tack on the 14M-posting fee the Cubs have to pay the Carp, and it is a 99M-investment.  A whopping amount of money, and this from a team that tore apart its roster a year ago.  Suzuki took the pay day, not the chance to be in a pennant race.  Strange decision.

So the Friars, dinged on the Tatis front, and now sideswiped by the Cubs careening offer, got more bad news hours later.

Kris Bryant, the ex Cubs-Giants big bat, was being pursued to play either 3B or LF.  The former USD star looked like a strong candidate  to land here because of a good team on the field, the stadium and money.  Instead he went to Colorado, of all places.

Bryant gets 7-years and a phenomenal 26M-per year average salary to hit home runs, and he will, in the thin air.  Go figure this one out too.  The Rockies, you know them, who traded away superstar Nolan Arenado, let SS-Trevor Story walk, and did not re-sign pitcher Jon Grey, have half a roster, then make that kind of investment in Bryant.   He will be rich, will be a 1-man show, they won’t win.

Again, why would he go there, turning down San Diego, or the late entry Boston Red Sox, where he would have had lots of talent in the batting order alongside him.

And of course this bad news piled on top of the Nelson Cruz decision not to rejoin GM-AJ Preller (they were together in Texas).  A 42-year old, he took a bigger payday to sign with the lowly Washington Nationals.

So the Padres don’t have Tatis, did not get any of the 3-free agents they thought they were in on.

Yes the wild rumor in the back alley is that the Padres think they are a player for Braves World Series MVP-Freddie Freeman, but as of mid-evening, the Dodgers were evidently ready to up their offer to 6Y-maybe 150M to get the Atlanta star.

3-weeks out from the start of the season, everyone is writing Preller continues to try and trade Wil Myers (20M), or the remaining 3-years on Eric Hosmer’s bloated contract (60M), with few takers.

The smoke will clear, and there may still  be a trade to get another bat, or a left fielder, or a DH, but this cloud cover over the last 48-hours at the Padres spring training camp, was not marine laywer.  It is disappointment for sure.

Thought this would work out, has not yet, but there is still time to reconfigure the roster.

You could be upset, but please remember, this is not a Cincinnati Reds purge, or an Oakland Athletics annual tear down.  We’re not in Pittsburgh or Baltimore where the P
irates and Orioles have ‘no chance’ of getting out of last place.

New day, see what happens in the next day of baseball deals for the Padres.

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