Advantages over NL wild-card rivals in pitching, payroll have Padres in good position for first 162-game playoff berth since 2010
Clouds dim the offensive outlook, but it’ll take an overall implosion — worse than last year’s, given the rotation’s strength — for the Padres not to end two franchise-record droughts by October.
Having six starting pitchers who’ve shown they can shut down a good lineup — Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Mike Clevinger, Sean Manaea and bright rookie MacKenzie Gore — increases the odds the Padres could line up their second-round pitching if they have to win a best-of-three, first-round series.See, starting pitching — and, related, theiraffords them thicker cushion, as does this year’s addition of a third wild card.
This time around, coming off three defeats in four games at Dodger Stadium, it’s more of the same. The Padres’ payroll looms bigger by $110 million, $63 million and $80 million, respectively,, than the next three opponents: Seattle, San Francisco and Colorado. The message is this: Enjoy it while you can. Those three hail from bigger media markets and occupy comparably gorgeous, revenue-building ballparks.
Several NL clubs are punting away this season, making the actual field of challengers smaller than it first appears. Meantime, third-card candidate Philadelphia won’t soon regain Bryce Harper, the 2021 MVP recovering from the broken thumb he sustained nearly two weeks ago in San Diego. Having sprung leaks in their rotation and fallen off last year’s magic carpet, the Giants may be inclined to sell talent before the Aug. 2 trade deadline.
It’s encouraging that Preller, whose eight-year tenure seeks its first 162-game winner, has grown into the job. The turnaround of Gore qualifies as a much-needed developmental victory. On the trade market, Preller is on a roll thanks to two moves on the cusp of this season’s opener. For pennies on the dollar, it appears, he obtained former A’s lefty Manaea, who no doubt received an endorsement from Bob Melvin, the manager Preller smartly hired from Oakland.
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