San Diego Padres 2018 season review
2018 Padres: What went right?
Not much went right with the San Diego Padres offense. They didn’t hit for average (.235 batting average) or for power (.380 slugging percentage) and were particularly bad at getting on base (.297 on-base percentage). Their on-base percentage was the lowest in baseball. If you’re looking for some positives with the bats, the choices are limited.
The brightest spot among hitters was outfielder Franmil Reyes, who came up from the minor leagues in May and hit .280/.340/.498 (129 wRC+, meaning he was 29 percent better than average on offense after league and ballpark effects were accounted for; 100 is league average). In a little over half a season, Reyes launched 16 home runs. His calling card is big power. Not only did he hit 16 big flies in the big leagues, he also hit 16 in Triple-A. This came after he hit 25 dingers in Double-A in 2017. He’ll be 23 years old next season and should be a fixture in the lineup.
Another guy with a productive stick was outfielder Hunter Renfroe, who led the team in home runs and was second in RBI. Renfroe hit .248/.302/.504 (114 wRC+) and had 26 homers for the second season in a row.
Third baseman Christian Villanueva had an above average season on offense (.236/.299/.450, 104 wRC+, 20 homers in 110 games), but it comes with an asterisk. He absolutely crushed the ball in April, when he hit .321/.411/.692 and had eight of his 20 home runs. Then his bat went missing for three months. In May, June and July, he hit .184/.227/.360. He recovered to hit well in 15 games in August before a fractured finger ended his season.
The three players mentioned so far were all above average on offense but either didn’t have the playing time or the proficiency on defense to be average players overall. No Padres position player produced 2 WAR, which is league average. Wil Myers came closest. He had 1.6 WAR in 83 games, which would make him an above average player over a full season. Unfortunately, he missed considerable time with an oblique injury.
The top pitcher on the Padres was reliever Craig Stammen (2.73 ERA, 2.19 FIP, 2.3 WAR). He didn’t get any saves but was the most effective pitcher on the roster. The team leader in saves was Brad Hand (24 saves. 3.05 ERA, 3.18 FIP, 0.7 WAR), who was traded along with Adam Cimber to Cleveland in July for catching prospect Francisco Mejia.
According to Baseball America, Mejia was the 20th-ranked prospect in baseball prior to the 2018 season. MLB Pipeline had him 11th on their top-100 and Baseball Prospectus had him all the way up at 5th. He spent most of this year in Triple-A, where he hit .293/.338/.471. He’s one of the good, young players the Padres will build the team around.
After Hand was traded, Kirby Yates took over the closer’s role and finished with 12 saves, a 2.14 ERA, 2.54 WHIP and 1.8 WAR. He, along with Stammen and Hand, helped the Padres relievers finish second in baseball with 8.8 WAR. Only the New York Yankees were better.
The starting rotation was not good, finishing 28th in WAR, but Joey Lucchesi wasn’t terrible. He had a 4.08 ERA and 4.31 WHIP. More importantly, he was one of the few starting pitchers on the Padres with a strong strikeout rate. He had 145 whiffs in 130 innings.
While the 2018 Padres weren’t very good on the field, they had a nice moment off the field when Trevor Hoffman was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Hoffman is an icon in San Diego, where he played 16 of his 18 years in the major leagues. He is second all-time in career saves. Only the great Mariano Rivera had more.