For whatever else needs to be fixed or tweaked or changed regarding the Padres — and the most important thing would be their best players performing better on the field — there is a belief in the clubhouse that the culture within the team is one that lacks cohesion and a central purpose.
This does not mean players don’t like each other or don’t work hard, those inside say. Multiple players pushed back on suggestions there are deep-seated resentments between them.
The issue, several sources said they believe, is a lack of engagement.
This, according to multiple veterans who have been with the Padres for varying lengths of time and most who have also played for other teams, is largely borne of the team’s best players being on their own programs to some extent. And, in particular, it is the product of there being an outsized presence who commands the room, a man who has shown the ability to carry a team but has not exhibited the ability nor inclination to lift it….
“I think everybody is a leader,” Machado said. “I think we have 26 leaders. I don’t think necessarily one person has to take the lead role. I think baseball is a team sport. It takes everyone.”
Told that there was uniform agreement among several teammates that he is the dominant presence in the clubhouse, Machado did say, “That’s fair.”
Many Padres fans don’t even realize when they buy a $10 hot dog or a $20 tall boy: Roughly 10 percent of the take at many stands is supposed to be donated to charity.
Charities staff those concession stands at Petco Park and, in return, they get to keep anywhere from nine to 12 percent of the proceeds for their charity.
A group called Chula Vista Fast Pitch operates more stands than any other charity in the park – netting it potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, according to documents obtained by Voice of San Diego. The only problem is Chula Vista Fast Pitch does not exist.
Chula Vista Fast Pitch doesn’t have a website and it has no permits to use fields in Chula Vista. Official tax and business filings, as well as internet archives, show that such a charity did exist at one time. But it shut down in 2014. (The charity was called “Chula Vista Fastpitch.” Fastpitch, a version of softball, is one word, but the group at Petco spells it out in two words.)
Searches for many different permutations of Chula Vista Fast Pitch online, in business directories and in tax filings returned no current nonprofit organizations.
People familiar with the softball world, including the former founders of Chula Vista Fastpitch, say no one is using that name currently for softball purposes.
And yet, Chula Vista Fast Pitch has been operating in Petco Park for the last nine years. Multiple people familiar with the operation said it was an open secret that the charity doesn’t really exist.
As gloomy as the season feels right now, there are still legitimate reasons to think the Padres are a good baseball team. Their 68–54 Pythagorean record is 10 wins above their actual record, and records derived from run differential are more predictive than win-loss record. The projections all still agree there’s a lot to like and similarly have a good record, relatively speaking, of predicting the future. And this holds true even when talking about teams with the largest disagreement between the projections and the record. Looking at the 25 teams that FanGraphs like better than their seasonal winning percentage the most, coin flips missed their rest-of-season winning percentages by an average of 86 points, season to-date records by 81 points, and FanGraphs records by 65 points. Those 25 teams had played .396 ball through August 14 of their seasons; FanGraphs projected a .476 RoS winning percentage, and the actual RoS winning percentage for those teams was .458. We weren’t imagining things.
But the fundamental problem the Padres face is that it’s simply far too late to be the team they hoped they were. Our projections still believe they are a .572 team, but that’s only good enough for a 19% chance of making the postseason with a divisional probability that rounds to zero; the ZiPS projections have it at 15%. While those are still pretty good odds, especially compared to how the season has felt, it’s still far more likely than not that this year ends up being a dark companion to the 2021 season that also ended in stunningly bleak fashion.
And here’s the problem: the Padres project to be worse in the future than they are now. You could say that about most teams, but the Padres are also a team that has a massive amount of payroll already tied up in a declining roster, an unsigned Soto approaching free agency, and probably not a lot of room left to grow in a payroll sense. Complicating things even further is the financial collapse of Bally Sports, as the team has not yet figured out how to replace that revenue. Forbes estimated the Padres lost $53 million in 2022, and things are likely to get worse from there. Peter (Seidler) actually saw a wolf.
Cruz was designated for assignment by the Padres on Tuesday.
Cruz signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Padres over the winter and was getting fairly regular starts in the DH role, but he has suddenly been dropped from the 40-man roster after ultimately slashing just .245/.283/.399 with five homers and 23 RBI across 49 games. Rougned Odor looks poised for an uptick in playing time as part of the fallout from this move. He is at third base Tuesday with Manny Machado taking a turn as the DH.
The Padres’ record is now 37-42 following a 9-4 loss to the Pirates on Tuesday night at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. San Diego is 10 ½ games behind the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West standings and 7 ½ games out of a wild-card playoff berth.
It was another frustrating night for a team build to win it all right now. Owner Peter Seidler has pulled out all the stops with the Padres’ $248-million payroll being the third-largest in the major leagues despite them playing in the nation’s 27th-largest media market….
The inconsistency in scoring runs throughout the season is a head scratcher. Tatis heads a star-studded lineup that includes third baseman Manny Machado, left fielder Juan Soto and shortstop Xander Bogaerts.
All are either in their prime or entering it. Yet the Padres’ average of 4.29 runs scored a game is 20th among the 30 major-league teams.
Thus, the Padres are wasting a fine season from their pitching staff, which is fifth in MLB with a 3.76 earned run average.
The Padres, in need of a spot starter Saturday against the Nationals, plan to promote 26-year-old right-hander Matt Waldron—who will become the first regular knuckleballer to pitch in the big leagues since Mickey Jannis did so for the Orioles in 2021.
“It fulfilled the dream I’ve had my whole life,” said Waldron, who joined the Padres’ taxi squad Friday. “... I don’t even know if it’s hit yet.”
Waldron’s callup comes with the Padres planning to skip Michael Wacha’s start while he deals with right shoulder fatigue. Manager Bob Melvin noted the team is confident Wacha will return to the rotation for his next turn.
That left an opening for Waldron, whose arsenal also features a fastball and a slider. He is not a knuckleballer in the mold of, say, Tim Wakefield or R.A. Dickey, righties who relied almost exclusively on the pitch.
But the knuckleball is a primary weapon for Waldron, and his arrival in the big leagues heralds the return of one of baseball’s most whimsical offerings—a pitch that, in recent years, has bordered on extinction.
Diamond Sports Group has decided not to pay the San Diego Padres their latest rights fee, a monumental development that will revert the team’s broadcasting rights to Major League Baseball and establish precedent for an uncertain, rapidly evolving landscape.
Diamond, the Sinclair subsidiary that operates under the name Bally Sports, skipped its payment to the Padres a couple of weeks ago and had until the end of its grace period on Tuesday to make the team whole and maintain their long-term agreement. Choosing not to meant Tuesday’s game against the Miami Marlins was the last Padres game under the Bally Sports umbrella. Moving forward—starting Wednesday, continuing through the end of the season and resuming in perpetuity—MLB will air Padres games through its streaming service and on different cable channels.
MLB will provide Padres games through its MLB.TV app for free through Sunday. After that, in-market fans can continue to stream games for $19.99 a month or $74.99 for the rest of the regular season on MLB.com and Padres.com (postseason games air on national platforms). Through this process, Padres games will no longer be subject to blackouts. Local fans can also watch Padres games through a variety of cable providers—AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV, Cox and Spectrum—on a different channel. fuboTV will also continue to air Padres games through its platform.
Jake Cronenworth and the San Diego Padres are in agreement on a seven-year, $80 million extension, a source confirmed to ESPN on Friday night.
The deal, which will become official once it receives approval from Major League Baseball, would begin next year and keep Cronenworth with the Padres through the 2030 season, at which point he’ll be 36.
Cronenworth, 29, was set to become a free agent after the 2025 season. He will make $4.23 million this year, his first as an arbitration-eligible player.
Ryan Ludwick and the Cincinnati Reds agreed to a $2.5 million, one-year contract Monday, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday night because the deal was pending a physical and no announcement had been made by the team.
An All-Star in 2008 with St. Louis, the 33-year-old Ludwick was traded from San Diego to Pittsburgh at the July 31 deadline last season. He batted a combined .237 with 13 homers and 75 RBIs.
Ludwick could give the Reds the right-handed bat they’ve been seeking to complement lefty sluggers Joey Votto and Jay Bruce. He figures to see playing time in left field, a spot filled mostly by Chris Heisey down the stretch last season after Cincinnati traded Jonny Gomes to Washington in late July.
Major League Baseball has been embarrassed in recent years by financial debacles surrounding the ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. And baseball is determined to avoid being burned again, Forbes.com reports.
That’s the real reason owners tabled approval of the sale of the San Diego Padres to Jeff Moorad at last week’s owners meetings, the report says. Commissioner Bud Selig is not convinced of the net worth of Moorad’s limited partners and is putting them “under a microscope,” Forbes reports.
Bartolo Colon has agreed to a deal with an unknown club reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (on Twitter). The right-hander wouldn’t divulge the team because he has not yet passed his physical.
Pretty sure it’s either the All-Stars or the Champs.
With the Hall of Fame results being announced today, we decided to take a trip down memory lane and dig up some old scouting reports from the Baseball America archives on some of the ballot’s notable candidates. . .
8. Barry Larkin, ss, 21, 5-11, 175, R-R
Larkin looked right at home in AA, hitting .267 for Vermont. He didn’t show power (one home run in 255 at-bats), but that will come. The key for him was just getting his feet on the ground, and he was not overpowered by the high level of competition (21 strikeouts in 255 at-bats). He will have good power for a shortstop.
6. Edgar Martinez, 3b, 25, 5-11, 175, R-R
Martinez’s discipline will produce runs. He’s averaged 70 RBIs the last four years. In the field, he’s solid, with good reactions and the soft hands of a middle infielder.
Theo: You’re looking good, Riz.
Rizzo: Eat your heart out.
Theo: And sloppy seconds are my style!
The Cubs acquired first baseman Anthony Rizzo and right-hander Zach Cates from the Padres on Friday, sending right-hander Andrew Cashner and outfielder Kyung-Min Na to San Diego.
The 22-year-old Rizzo batted .331 with a 1.056 OPS, 34 doubles, 26 homers and 101 RBIs in 93 games for Triple-A Tucson last year… Rated the top first-base prospect in the league by MLB.com, Rizzo struggled during his brief time in the Majors last season batting .141 with one home run and nine RBIs in 49 games…
Cates, 22… made his professional debut last year, posting a 4-10 record and 4.73 ERA in 118 innings over 25 starts for Class A Fort Wayne. He struck out nearly a batter an inning and allowed only four home runs on the year.
Cashner, 25, went 2-6 with a 4.29 ERA in 60 big league appearances with the Cubs, including one start, over the last two years….he was limited to just seven outings in the Majors last season due to a right shoulder strain.
Na, 20, hit .268 with 10 doubles and 22 RBIs in 83 games between four different teams in the Cubs’ Minor League system last year.
DL: Should you pitch more to contact in Petco than in other ballparks?
BB: I think that you can, but there are a couple of ways to look at that. You don’t want to lay the ball in there. But I do think that it can help you mentally — knowing that if you throw the ball to certain spots — you can feel good about it. When you’re behind in the count, you can throw to certain spots, as well.
More than anything, if you’re a strike-thrower… that helps you at Petco. If you’re an extreme fly ball pitcher, that helps you at Petco. When the ball gets hit into the air, it hangs up and maybe doesn’t travel as well because of the coastal situation we have — the heaviness of the air. It’s not unlike San Francisco or Dodger Stadium.
Some pitchers might be hurt because they’re fly ball pitchers. That doesn’t apply to us as much because we play 81 games in our park, plus nine more in both San Francisco and Los Angeles.
DL: Do you want fly ball pitchers on your staff, as opposed to guys who tend to keep the ball on the ground?
BB: Not necessarily. It’s whatever a pitcher has results with. It’s simply that a fly ball pitcher isn’t effected as much in Petco as he would be in a place like Cincinnati, Philadelphia or Toronto.
As Byrnes put it, “We twa hae run about the braes after being hit by a pitch, and pu’d the gowans fine.”
The Padres just announced that they have acquired outfielder Carlos Quentin from the White Sox for prospect right-hander Simon Castro and prospect left-hander Pedro Hernandez.
There is a whole lot of talent changing hands here.
The Reds and Padres announced a five-player deal Saturday, as Cincinnati sent right-hander Edinson Volquez and three of its top 10 prospects to the Padres for right-hander Mat Latos.
Along with Volquez, the Padres acquired right-hander Brad Boxberger, infielder Yonder Alonso and catcher Yasmani Grandal. All were recently named among Cincinnati’s top 10 prospects by MLB.com (Alonso second, Grandal fifth and Boxberger sixth).
System In 20 Words Or Less: Not star-studded but loaded with depth, as you could jumble numbers one-to-seven in any order and not get a big argument.
Four-Star Prospects
1. Rymer Liriano, OF
2. Robbie Erlin, LHP
3. Jedd Gyorko, 3B
4. Cory Spangenberg, 2B
5. Joe Wieland, RHP
6. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
7. Casey Kelly, RHP
8. Austin Hedges, C
9. Joe Ross, RHP
Three-Star Prospects
10. Keyvius Sampson, RHP
11. Donavan Tate, OF
Nine More:
12. Jaff Decker, OF: Outfielder with power, walks and the athleticism of a beer-league softball player.
13. Reymond Fuentes, OF: Outstanding defender in center with speed; big questions about bat and power.
14. James Darnell, OF: Great year at Double-A, but it was a level repeat and he’s no longer an infielder.
15. Blake Tekotte, OF: Hard not to love for effort; good fourth-outfielder skills.
16. Edinson Rincon, OF: Scouts like the bat, but power is debatable and defense is ugly.
17. Jonathan Galvez, 2B: Gap power and speed, but bad approach and poor defense.
18. Matt Lollis, RHP: Right-handed has the size of a defensive end, but needs to harness his stuff.
19. Adys Portillo, RHP: Progress is disturbingly slow, but upside is still there.
20. Simon Castro, RHP: Has gone backwards from big prospect days, as fastball is only dependable pitch.
UPDATE: Thomas Harding of MLB.com reports that it’s a done deal, with the Padres assuming “most” of Street’s contract and sending the Rockies a player to be named later in exchange….
Olney describes the talks as “ongoing” and Street has been linked to several other teams at various points this month, with the Rockies now preferring Rafael Betancourt in the ninth inning.
He’s pricey at $7.5 million with a $9 million option or $500,000 buyout for 2013, but Street is still just 28 years old with a 3.11 career ERA that includes a 3.50 ERA and outstanding 170/33 K/BB ratio in 167 innings for the Rockies. Toss in the fact that going from Coors Field to Petco Park would solve his issues keeping the ball in the ballpark and Street could really thrive in San Diego as Heath Bell‘s replacement.
A year after seeing his five-year stint as Mets general manager end with a thud, Omar Minaya is back in the baseball biz after being hired by the San Diego Padres to an undisclosed front office position.
The move, first reported by SI.com, will most likely see Minaya in an advisory role to Padres GM Josh Byrnes and deal with scouting – particularly in Latin America – and trades.
Minaya, 53, who was fired by the Mets in October 2010, was the Amazins GM from 2005 through the 2010 season and saw his share of ups and downs in Queens.
The Padres have strengthened their catching situation with the acquisition of John Baker from the Miami Marlins on Tuesday in exchange for pitcher Wade LeBlanc.
Baker is two-plus years removed from reconstructive elbow surgery and was limited to 31 games between the majors and minors last season. He hit .154 with one RBI for the Marlins in 13 at-bats.
But the left-handed hitting catcher averaged seven homers and 41 RBIs with a .281 average in 2008-09.
“There’s some risk because of the injury, but we examined him and we’re convinced the elbow is sound,” Padres general manager Josh Byrnes said. “We now have three catchers and (Baker and Luis Martinez) have options.”
The Padres like Martinez, who hit .203 with 10 RBIs in 59 at-bats last season. But Baker has a stronger resume and the team feels it has good depth to back up starter Nick Hundley.
LeBlanc, a second-round pick in the 2006 amateur baseball draft, won a career-high eight games in 2010. He is 17-22 with a 4.54 ERA in 54 career games, including 52 starts.
Selig gets and takes credit for the [minority interviewing and hiring] program, and I suppose he deserves it because he was the commissioner who implemented it, and he did it before the National Football League instituted a similar program, the Rooney Rule. ...
This off-season clubs created openings for six general managers and five managers. A total of seven members of minorities were interviewed. White male interviewees numbered at least three times that number.
Clubs don’t always include minorities in their interviews, and the commissioner often shrugs it off, offering some lame excuse for the team. ...
But when Selig exempts teams, he misses the point of his own policy. The idea is to allow minorities to be exposed to the interviewing process and to enable themselves to be exposed to other teams for possible future consideration. No interview, no exposure. ...
Since the end of the 2009 season baseball has had nine subtractions and only three additions among minority general managers and managers. But two of the additions, Guillen and Fredi Gonzalez, also count among the subtractions, and the third addition, Edwin Rodriguez, became a subtraction when he resigned last season from his managing job with the Marlins.
In other words, no new minority appears on baseball’s landscape. ...
From what I have been able to piece together – Major League Baseball will not disclose lists of candidates for each team – three members of minorities (one each Hispanic, black and female) were interviewed for six general manager openings, two for the same opening, and four (three Hispanic, one black) were interviewed for five managerial vacancies, one candidate by two teams.
That’s not exactly a torrent of candidates. If Selig is “quite satisfied that all the clubs have done what they’re supposed to do,” he needs to set a higher standard. How can Selig be satisfied that Major League Baseball has only seven people who are considered worthy of being interviewed for top jobs? He shouldn’t be satisfied; he should be embarrassed.
Japanese teams post a player through their commissioner’s office, which notifies its American counterpart to make an announcement to all 30 clubs. Interested teams have four days to submit a secret bid, known as the posting fee. If the highest bid is accepted, the team making it has 30 days to negotiate exclusively with the player. If no deal is reached, the posting fee is returned to the major league club and the player’s rights revert to his Japanese club.
The posting system was created to address player transfers in December 1998, mostly as a response to the messy process that ultimately landed pitcher Hideki Irabu with the Yankees. ...
The first player to change leagues through the new system was another Dominican, pitcher Alejandro Quezada, also of the Carp. Before the 1999 season, he made history when the Cincinnati Reds won the first posting with a bid of $400,000 for his negotiating rights. Quezada, who later changed his name to Diaz, pitched in the Reds’ minor league system through 2003, but never appeared in a major league game.
Nearly two years later, the heralded outfielder Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese player to use the system. His Orix club reaped a $13.1 million posting fee from the Seattle Mariners after he signed a three-year, $14 million contract.
Over all, 11 players - nine Japanese and two Dominicans - have signed with major league teams through the posting system. Six postings failed to produce a player transfer, the first five because no teams bid.
Santo Domingo.- One of the most inconic Major League Baseball greats from the Dominican Republic, Mateo Rojas Alou (Matty Alou) died early Thursday in Miami of unspecified ailment.
Alou, one of the famous brothers Jesus and Felipe, who all started with the San Francisco Giants in the 1060s, crowned his career while playing with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1969, when he won that National League Batting title with an average of .342.
Dominican Olympic Committee president Luisin Mejia made the announcement on Channel 9 Thursday morning.
Asked by a reporter to name the top home run hitting team of the 2010s, I offered the Padres. Granting that it was a capricious choice, it has as good a chance of being right as anybody else I can think of.
The Padres signed the player known as Aristy out of the Dominican Republic when the international signing period opened on July 2, 2008, believing he was 16. In reality, his name is Jorge Leandro Guzman, and he’s nearly two and a half years older than he said—two weeks away from his 19th birthday when he signed.
Dan Mullin, the vice president of Major League Baseball’s department of investigations, said MLB got a tip about Aristy’s identity in January 2010. Investigators brought Guzman into their offices the next month and confronted him with the evidence, and Guzman admitted his true age and identity. MLB intended to suspend Guzman for a year, but due to an administrative error he did not serve a suspension.
[...]
In another twist to the story, while the real Jorge Guzman was pretending to be Alvaro Aristy, another player tried to use the identity of Jorge Guzman to sign. On Aug. 3, 2006, a shortstop whose real name is Carlos Puello Martinez presented himself using Guzman’s identity and signed with the Indians for $50,000. Martinez failed his age and identity investigation that year.
An interesting and informative piece by BA, about the murky world of age and identity fraud in the D.R.
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