The San Diego Padres continue to have perhaps the best offseason in Major League Baseball and have signed Koene Kela, the former Rangers closer who more recently pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates. This comes only a couple days after signing Mark Melancon to a deal. Now, these may not be the biggest blockbuster moves, but that’s because they already took care of those. The Padres have traded for Cy-Young Runner Up Yu Darvish along with his catcher Victor Caritini from the Padres and traded for elite starter Blake Snell from the Rays. And that’s still not all – the Padres have been ridiculously busy this offseason and obviously have full intentions on making a deep October run – let’s say it, they’re trying to a World Series.

Kela only pitched in 3 games during 2020 but if we go back to 2019, he had a 2.12 ERA in 32 games with 33 strikeouts and 11 walks, giving up just 19 hits. This signing adds another quality reliever to that bullpen and another quality player to that roster that is simply stacked at this point. The Padres are a team that has been trying to compete for a while now and going back to 2019, they had signed Manny Machado, Garrett Richards and Ian Kinsler but still ended up in last place, which took them off the radar of a lot of baseball analysists going into 2020. They added Tommy Pham, Jake Cronenworth, Drew Pomeranz and a few others but it didn’t seem near enough to catapult them from last place into the playoffs. But everything came together in 2020 for the Padres and their winning percentage went from .432 to .617 and were ready to make a big October push until the Dodgers beat them in the NLCS. It is worth nothing their two best pitchers were injured for that series.

Additions:

Koene Kela
Yu Darvish
Victor Caritini
Blake Snell
Ha-Seong Kim
Brian O’Grady
Jurickson Profar (Re-Signs)
Miguel Diaz (Non-Roster)
Aaron Northcraft (Non-Roster)
Pedro Florimon (Non-Roster)

Fast forward to the 2021 offseason and the Padres are pushing all their chips towards the center of the table. In addition to Kela, Malncon, Darvish and Snell, the Padres have signed Korean talent Ha-Seong Kim, who crushed 30 home runs in 2020 with a .306 average and 109 RBI for the Kiwoom Heroes. Jurickson Profar will be back after re-signing with the Padres and why wouldn’t you re-sign. There was a nice under-the-radar signing of Brian O’Grady, a former Reds prospect who smashed 28 home runs in just 112 games for the Louisville Bats in 2019 with a .280 average and .359 on-base-percentage. And just to make sure the rotation would be nice and solid all season long, the Padres even picked up Joe Musgrove in a trade. He has a great arsenal of pitches and keeps contact soft for the most part with his high spin fastball, killer sinker and an excellent slider. This team has done everything and then some to try to bring home a ring in 2021.

Lineup

1. Trent Grisham CF

2. Fernando Tatis Jr. SS

3. Manny Machado 3B

4. Eric Hosmer 1B

5. Tommy Pham LF

6. Wil Myers RF

7. Cronenworth/Kim 2B

8. Austin Nola C

Jumping into the starting lineup for this team, it could start with Trent Grisham, who provides insane defensive abilities and covers a lot of ground in the outfield. He only brought a Gold Glove in 2020 while improving his batting average by 20 points and hitting 10 homers in 215 at bats. He’s got patience as well, working 31 walks and should only be better in 2021. Tatis Jr. is just one the best in the game all-around and still hasn’t had a full season. Expect 2021 to be the year he tops 35 – maybe 40 – home runs and drives in 100 runs easily. No player in baseball can match Tatis’ all-around skills – he has speed, power, defense, patience and an arm. Then Manny Machado, one of the best players in the game and he’s actually showing improvement lately with less strikeouts and more walks. He had a monster 2020 and finished 3rd in the MVP voting with 16 home runs in 224 at bats and a .950 OPS.

Then after all that, Eric Hosmer’s beautiful swing shows up. He had a career high in slugging in 2020 and continued to be a vacuum cleaner at first base – any ball that comes near him will be plucked. Tommy Pham in left field had a rough year on and off the field and is 33 years old now. His Covid-19 positive was the least of his off-the-field health problems as he was also stabbed. Thankfully he was okay but didn’t have a great season – the Padres will hope he can return to his 2019 form when he hit 21 home runs for the Rays with a .369 on-base. If he struggles, the Padres have depth in the outfield with Brian O’Grady as I mentioned and another guy with 20 home run potential Jorge Mateo.

Wil Myers had a career year, improving his strikeout rate and hitting 15 home runs in less than 200 at bats with a .959 OPS. He could be in line for a 30 home run season in 2021. At second base we’ll probably see both Jake Cronenworth and Ha-Seong Kim. If Kim’s Korean numbers translate to MLB, he will probably be the main guy and Jake will be a super-sub, getting lots of starts and giving guys days off. But he’ll still get a lot of playing time after finishing second in the Rookie-of-the-Year voting in 2020. Finally, Austin Nola is a great defensive catcher and framer with a solid bat. He can work the walk and hit with some power. When Darvish pitches we’ll likely Victor Caritini. Prospect Luis Campusano could be on the way as well at some point but other than his big league debut last season, he hasn’t played above A-Ball so he’ll probably start the year in the minors.

Overall, there’s really no way around it – this lineup is amazing. The only question mark might be Tommy Pham, who has to prove that the Padres can count on him in 2020, but even then, the Pads made some moves to improve their outfield depth with O’Grady although he isn’t completely proven at the big-league level and even Jake Cronenworth can play some outfield if needed. All their bases are pretty much covered in the case of injury or underperformance and there’s even more great-looking prospects like Jorge Ona ready to jump in if needed. I gotta give this lineup an A+.

Rotation

1. Yu Darvish

2. Blake Snell

3. Dinelson Lamet

4. Joe Musgrove

5. Chris Paddack

Adrian Morejon

Mike Clevinger (Injured)

MacKenzie Gore

When Dinelson Lamet could be the #3 guy, I’m terrified. Yu Darvish is a two-time Cy-Young runner up with at least 6 elite pitches to choose from and is simply one of the best. Blake Snell, an actual Cy Young Award Winner, who also has some nasty breaking stuff to go along with mid-90’s heat. He looked unhittable in the World Series last year before he got yanked. Dinelson Lamet finished 4th in the Cy Young voting and averaged 12 strikeouts per 9 last season and has one of the hardest fastballs for a starting pitcher in the league. 2021 could be his first full season and it won’t surprise me if he wins close to 20 games.

Then after that it finally slows down although Joe Musgrove, like I said, is very solid. His 1-5 record is a little deceptive as he got no run support in Pittsburgh. He had an ERA of 3.86 and struck out 55 in 39. He’s not normally a strikeout machine but is more than solid as a 4th man. Chris Paddack has a mid-90’s fastball and excellent changeup. He had a decline after a great 2020 but advanced stats look pretty good and I think he’ll be much better in ’21. For most reams, Paddack would be towards the top of the rotation and here is barely hanging on to a rotation spot. Adrian Morejon has nasty stuff as well with a fastball that can touch 98, a wicked curve and a knuckle-change but he has dealt with injury issues and could start the year in the bullpen.

This rotation is also just about as good as it gets. Paddack will have to prove himself but other than that it is absolutely amazing and keep in mind, MacKenzie Gore will be waiting in the wings and should be ready soon based on how quick prospects fly through the minor leagues these days. He struck out 110 batters in 79 California League innings in 2019 with a 1.02 ERA. As for the 2021 rotation, I’m gonna give it an A.

Bullpen

Mark Melancon
Koene Kela
Drew Pomeranz
Emilio Pagan
Matt Strahm
Pierce Johnson
Dan Altavilla
Tim Hill
Craig Stammen
Austin Adams
Michael Baez
Jose Castillo
Taylor Williams
Javy Guerra
Ryan Weathers
Adrian Morejon

The Padres bullpen was more the sufficient before they decided to continue to stack and stack and stack. Now, it’s more than sufficient – it is fantastic. Drew Pomeranz was already coming back and he really transformed himself into a fantastic left-handed reliever and that transition started with the Giants. I had no idea how good he would be and at the time it seemed like a steal to send him to Milwaukee for Mauricio Dubon. He’s not one of the best arms in the Padres pen with a high-spin fastball that he can just let fly and he still has that hooking curve as well. Mark Melancon continues to be a great reliever other than most of his time in San Francisco of course. He had a 2.78 ERA with 11 Saves for the Braves last year. Kela provides another reliable arm and then there’s Emilio Pagan, who has a sick fastball/slider combo that can destroy just about anyone. Pierce Johnson developed a nasty curve in Japan in 2019 and used it in 2020 to strike out 27 batters in 20 innings along with a disgusting sinker. Strahm had a great year, Austin Adams was filthy, Craig Stammen gave up more runs than he wanted to but also showed great stuff and should be better with a larger sample size. The bottom line is this is one of the best bullpens in the game to go along with one of the best lineups and rotations in the game. The Padres are to be feared. I’m going to give this bullpen an A+.

So, there you have it, the Padres are one of the best looking teams in the game along with the Dodgers, both in the NL West. This is going to be an absolutely insane season as we watch which of the two will take control of the west if any. And can another team like the Giants, DBacks or Rockies make a surprise push and actually hang with either of these two ridiculously good teams. As for the Padres, as an entire team they get a very strong A, just short of an A+ but if Chris Paddack is good or Gore gets promoted and is good or if Morejon stays healthy and pitches well out of the rotation, this could easily an A+ team all around. They are insanely good and this is going to be a wild ride.