Padres Encouraged to Add Outfielder, Starting Pitcher to ‘Make Noise’ In Playoffs
The battle to crown the winner of the NL West this season will be one of most exciting things to watch for the remainder of the year. The Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres all have an excellent shot of winning the division. San Diego in particular, has been encouraged by Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly to go out and trade for an outfielder and starting pitcher prior to the trade deadline. Kelly believes that those two moves could be what ultimately moves the needle to propel the Padres to the top of the division. “Still, it might make sense to add another arm capable of making a postseason start,” Kelly wrote. “Ideally, it would be someone who isn’t a rental since King and Cease can both become free agents after this season.” The return of Yu Darvish to the Padres rotation is still looming and it is entirely possible that general manager AJ Preller decides no move is needed to upgrade the rotation. That’s really not the way Preller works, though, and it is much more likely he goes out and tries to make a big-time move and add to the San Diego pitching staff. Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and Mitch Keller are all names that make sense, and the Padres should be able to put together a package to acquire one of those three. “Whether they’ll be able to beat out the Dodgers for the NL West title or not, the Padres have a chance to make noise in the playoffs,” Kelly wrote. “San Diego could win (its) first World Series title if (the Padres) hit on adding an outfielder and another front-line starter.”
The outfield addition may not be as important, as the Padres rank sixth in Wins Above Average from their outfielders. Outside of Luis Robert, it is unclear as to which outfielders will be available on the trade market when the deadline comes around. It feels that the addition of a starting pitcher to help shut down the high-powered offenses in the National league may be more of what San Diego should focus on headed toward the trade deadline and summer months.
Padres know they need to ‘just get back to playing our game’
SAN DIEGO — The first series of the now-formalized Vedder Cup is in the books. Its namesake once wondered lyrically whether he was the boxer or the bag. There were no such doubts over the weekend — the Mariners were the boxer; the Padres were the bag.
Goes that way sometimes. Heck, despite their struggles, the Padres didn’t lose any ground on the Dodgers, who were also swept at home — by the last-place Angels.
Still, there’s no denying it was a rough weekend. The Padres scored only one run in each of the three games — including a 6-1 loss in Sunday’s finale at Petco Park. They finished the weekend 0-for-21 with runners in scoring position.
“They were better, it’s just that simple,” said Fernando Tatis Jr., who hit a leadoff homer in the finale. “They had the upper hand in this one.”
Some takeaways from the weekend that was:
1. Still no answer in left
In three games, the Padres started three different left fielders — and got a good look at the question marks surrounding each.
1. Brandon Lockridge started Friday. He’s elite defensively, but is probably best used in a platoon role and as a pinch-runner/defensive replacement.
2. Jason Heyward started Saturday. Ideally, he’d have seized hold of the starting job by now. But he’s slumped to a .177 batting average with a .505 OPS.
3. Gavin Sheets started Sunday, his second start in left this season as manager Mike Shildt got creative. The move backfired. Sheets is a first base/DH type, with a subpar glove in the outfield. He misplayed a deep drive off the bat of Rowdy Tellez on Sunday, losing his glove over the wall in the process. The Mariners scored twice afterward.
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