The San Diego Padres made enough moves in the offseason to guarantee contention, considering the fact they were fresh off making the NL Championship Series.
That’s what they thought, at least: they extended Yu Darvish, signed Xander Bogaerts to a $280 million contract, and got Fernando Tatis Jr. back from suspension, among other moves.
Well, as of Friday afternoon, they are 62-73 and have lost three straight and seven of their last 10.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are 22 games ahead of the Padres, so the division is impossible to win.
A spot in the playoffs via the Wild Card is also not realistic at this point: San Diego is 8.5 games behind the third WC spot with multiple teams ahead of them.
The last sign that the team has given up was their failure to put in a waiver claim for any of the players available this week.
“And on Aug. 31, 2023, the San Diego #Padres officially surrender. They didn’t bother making a waiver claim,” MLB insider Bob Nightengale tweeted.
And on Aug. 31, 2023, the San Diego #Padres officially surrender.
They didn’t bother making a waiver claim.— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 31, 2023
Harrison Bader, Mike Clevinger, Carlos Carrasco, Lucas Giolito, Matt Moore, Reynaldo Lopez, and other potentially useful players became available this week as teams without playoff hopes wanted to shed some salary.
The Padres didn’t waive anyone, but they also didn’t claim anyone: once again, the ever-so-dangerous status quo.
They will try to compete again in 2024 with basically the same core: Bogaerts, Darvish, Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Ha-Seong Kim, and Tatis.
However, failing so badly in 2023 might have hurt their chances of retaining Soto when he hits free agency after next season.
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