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“PADRES OFF SEASON-VERY IMPORTANT”
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Dear Padres Fans:
Hope you have enjoyed the last five years of fun at Petco Park.
I am not so sure the coming years will be equal to the great summers of baseball you had.
Teams change every year.
Rosters evolve.
Injuries take a toll.
Players leave as free agents.
New players arrive in trades and deals.
And that’s where we are at this hour with the Friars.
GM-AJ Preller has alot of work to do, not just on finding some power bats for his depleted lineup, but now to likely construct a whole new starting rotation.
Nick Pivetta, coming off a fantastic season, is your number 1-starter.
After that, there are question marks lots of places, on the roster and in the rotation.
Yu Darvish’s illustrious career may be in the rearview mirror, after his 3rd elbow surgery since 2015. This brace surgery to repair the UCL and the tendon will sideline him 12-to-15 months. No 2026 season. Only hopes for a 40-something pitcher by the time 2027 rolls around. And Preller owes him (3Y-46M) on the rest of the contract.
Dylan Cease has headed to free agency, with reports the Cubs are willing to look at a 4-or-5 year contract for the high velocity-strikeout-but streaky pitchers. Too expensive for me.
Michael King-beloved for what he has become a starter, has walked away from his (15M) deal to become a free agent in search of a new 3-to-5 year contract at a bigger price tag. I’d give him the (22M) qualifying offer-but doubt he would take it.
Joe Musgrove has done everything possible in rehab from his own Tommy John surgery, but understand more often than not, it takes two years to come back to be the pitcher you used to be, if you can come back. This is a waiting game.
That’s the front four of what used to be a pretty good rotation.
Now your rotation might involve Randy Vasquez, JP Sears, Matt Waldren. There will be no Jhonny Brito (elbow surgery), Kyle Hart (option not picked up), Ryan Berget-Steven Kolek (traded away).
I for one don’t buy the rumor of moving Mason Miller or Adrian Morejon into the rotation. That’s where they came from, and they were often injured pitching as starters in the minors. I don’t see flipping Jeremiah Estrada either into a starter now that he found a niche in a strong bullpen.
And by the way, Robert Suarez is gone to free agency too, so everybody in that bullpen moves up a slot.
The farm system is barren of arms right now (Preller at his wheel-deal best). Aside of Omar Cruz-Jackson Wolf (El Paso) and Henry Baez-Brayden Nutt (San Antonio), those are the only arms who put up good numbers. And again that is AAA-AA baseball-yet to prove yourself in the bigs.
Luckily the free agent window just opened.
Luckily, there are arms becoming available, Brandon Woodruff (Milw), Shoto Imanaga (Cubs), Shane Bieber (Toronto).
But the price tag on pitching keeps going up, even for guys coming off injury problems.
Luckily though Preller has a history of finding reclamation projects in the minors and by heading back to the Pacific Rim, Japan-Korea-Taiwan.
All that being said, it looks like he has limited payroll available, because of the pay hikes Manny Machado-Fernando Tatis will get. He does have the Cease-Luis Arraez-King-Robert Suarez money to be freed up (combined 50M) plus the Eric Hosmer (13M) coming off the books.
But how are you going find a truckload of pitchers and get some type of power hitting bat? And he has very little to trade in the system (Preller factor again).
And I remind you, look at that Padres pitching rotation at this hour, and then look up the road at the ‘Gold Standard-Dodgers Blue’ starting rotation. The ones with the World Series rings I might add.
Hope you enjoyed the last 5-summers of Padres baseball. It just might not be the same next year, even if the baseball calendar reads ‘November’ and opening day is a ways away.
Off season is a most important season to not let this franchise success slip away. And it might.
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