San Diego Padres: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season

San Diego Padres: 2020 Preview and Prediction

We have the young phenom, Fernando Tatis Jr., who the San Diego Padres are working on extending long-term at the shortstop position. But although his ceiling is astronomically high, right now I would say injuries are a bit of a concern for him as he had a stint last season where he missed the entire month of May, and then we saw his season get shut down mid-August due to a back injury.

Now that could just be a one-time thing being that Tatis is so young but look at other notable young shortstops like Carlos Correa and Corey Seager and the long road they’re still on trying to fully recover. They’re not the same players they were when they first came up and in Correa’s case, he’s dealt with back injuries of his own. So, hopefully, this long delay is giving guys like Tatis time to fully recover, but I think it’s something to keep an eye on if the young phenom starts having similar patterns of injury.

We have Eric Hosmer who signed an 8-year/$144 million dollar contract in 2018 with the Padres, and to this point, Hoz has also been somewhat of an under-achiever since coming out to San Diego. Hosmer has hit .260 as a member of the Padres with an OBP of .316 and has struck out 305 times, which makes up about 30% of his career punch-outs (1,019 total). For a player who made his bones in Kansas City as a high-contact hitter, this San Diego version of Hoz is certainly not what the Friars expected in signing him to that long-term deal.

To his credit, Hosmer drove in 99 runs last year, but if he continues on this downward trend, he’s going to be a big contract that the Padres are dying to get rid of with plentiful first base options waiting in the wings like Josh Naylor, Ty France, Jason Vosler, Seth Mejias-Brean, and Wil Myers.

Speaking of Wil Myers, is he even going to be on this team in the near future? Myers had an atrocious 2019 season hitting .239 and racking up a WAR of -0.4. Boy, has Myers fallen from the graces because this was a highly-touted prospect in the Rays organization who got traded over to the Padres and was an All-Star for them in 2016. But since 2016, Myers has hit .245 and just this very offseason there were rumors circulating about the team trying to swing a trade sending him to the Red Sox. If Myers continues to under-achieve, he may very well find himself out of San Diego

So, in terms of offensive prowess, I worry about this Padres lineup and the uncertainty it portrays. We have no idea how any of these guys are going to do except for Tommy Pham who is going to consistently give you an average of about .280 with 20 home runs and 20-25 stolen bases.

Are Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer going to continue trending downward? Is Fernando Tatis Jr. going to stay healthy? Is Wil Myers going to revitalize his career? How about Francisco Mejia? We’re still waiting on him to breakthrough. Unless proven otherwise, I think this Padre offense has all the makings of an under-achieving group, especially now that most of their power is gone in Hunter Renfroe and Franmil Reyes.