The San Diego Padres are out of sync a quarter of the way into the 2023 season. This team signed and extended superstars to get them to a World Series. Instead, they’re off to a troublesome start with a 24–27 record, and they are only 12–15 at home. Their home fans have been letting them know how they feel about it with a chorus of boos during the last two homestands.
What is Wrong
While there are a few things going wrong with this team, the lack of offense is the main concern. They are 3–20 when they fail to score at least four runs. As a team, the Padres are hitting .225, which ranks last in baseball. They are second to last in OBP., in the bottom five in slugging average, and are averaging under four runs a game.
Offensive Woes
Inconsistency with the offense has been the Padres’ primary concern, and multiple players are struggling at the plate. After back-to-back seasons of good production, Jake Cronenworth is off to a lackluster start. He is hitting just .213, and his strikeout rate is up. Although he has never been a hitter for a top average, everyone expected him to hit around .270.
Austin Nola is off to the worst start of his career with a .135 batting average. He has one home run and seven RBI, and his slugging percentage is .194. Even Manny Machado is off to a slow start. He was hitting .231 with five home runs when his hand was hit by a pitch, and he was put on the IL.
Pitching Woes as well
The San Diego Padres are off to a rough start, and another reason for this is pitching. Blake Snell is 1–6 with a 5.04 ERA, and has allowed nine home runs in ten starts. He has struggled with giving up walks which has forced him to be removed from games earlier than he would choose. Joe Musgrove is also having a challenging time. He started the season on the IL due to a toe injury ,and did not get his first start until April 22. Musgrove has a record of 2–2. He has given up six home runs in 30 1/3 innings, and holds an ERA of 5.64.
Manager Bob Melvin
They have not completely collapsed amid the big expectations of making it to the World Series. They still have time to get things going. There hasn’t been any internal grumbling, which might be due in part to manager Bob Melvin, who has been called the best communicating manager in the game.
He is the type of manger who wants everyone to know where he is, and what he’s thinking and even why he makes certain decisions. Melvin comes in and explains it in the same tone, and does not care if you are the superstar or the utility player. He treats everyone the same.
They will be Better
The San Diego Padres are struggling, but in the end, they will likely start playing well sooner rather than later. They feature one of the best lineups in baseball. All athletes go through slumps, and teams have slow starts. This just happens to be a team-wide slump.
Again, it’s still just the end of the first quarter of the season. If Musgrove and Snell can regain their former pitching excellence and the offense gets timely hitting going, this team should have no problem bouncing back.
However, “sooner” really needs to be now and not later. If they don’t get in sync and regain their winning form soon, they’ll sink into a hole too big to get out of by playoff time. They just might find themselves watching the playoffs instead of participating.
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