The San Diego Padres have been one of the better teams as they have added star talent to their core group of players at the Trade Deadline this year with outfielder Juan Soto, first baseman Josh Bell, utility infielder Brandon Drury, and closer Josh Hader to their already stacked team. They also just received news that shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr will not be a part of the team for the remainder of the season as he was suspended for 80 games for performance-enhancing drugs. How much does this change how we should view the San Diego Padres as a serious championship contender?
MLB stats and the eye test are just two ways to evaluate how a team is doing well or not. Let’s dive into the Padres.
Will the Padres Make the Playoffs?
As of this writing, the San Diego Padres essentially are out of the NL West race as the Los Angeles Dodgers are far and away the better team and have won head-to-head matchups with almost a 20-game lead in the division. This means that the Padres have to be one of the three NL Wild Card teams to make the postseason.
The NL East has a bunch of great teams as the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, and Atlanta Braves are all solid teams while the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central are good as well even after trading away Hader to the Padres. Even in the division, the San Francisco Giants aren’t too far behind.
Looking at Fangraphs probability numbers, the Padres have an 80.5 percent chance to make the playoffs (4th best in the NL) and a 5.4 percent chance to win the World Series as of August 14. They should make the postseason and that means they just have to play well down the stretch but have nine more games against the Dodgers and six games against the San Francisco Giants.
What About Tatis?
So losing Fernando Tatis Jr for the remainder of the season right after he was beginning his rehab assignment to join the team sucks, there’s no way to go around it. But, he has not played a single game this season in the majors and the team is chugging along with a 64-52 record. This team is talented, but it feels like they will fall short of the World Series.
Having your superstar shortstop now have the PED thing over his head after being arguably the face of baseball before all of this definitely is a blow and as long as his teammates accept him with open arms, that’s all that matters. PEDs are not going to make a marginal player be able to have a $300 million contract like Tatis Jr was able to get. I don’t think this hinders them that much now having Juan Soto under contract to pair up with Manny Machado in the heart of the order.
It sucks about Tatis since he’s a star, but the Padres have played well without him and are averaging 4.47 runs per game without him getting a single at-bat. Would he have helped? Definitely, but this also helps the roster understand they are a great team without him there as well and pretend it’s a season-ending injury and not deal with the mindset of him using PEDs.
Conclusion
The National League is stacked with teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Mets, and the Atlanta Braves. I don’t believe the San Diego Padres should be considered as a World Series team in 2022. It doesn’t change much with Tatis now out the entire season as their pitching is the issue.
This team can win it all but need a lot of breaks to go in their favor that will most likely not happen for them. Does Fernando Tatis Jr’s suspension now change your view on the 2022 San Diego Padres team as a whole?
