The San Diego Padres need more firepower. They ranked just 25th in runs scored coming into the series in the STL.
Manny Machado (.830 OPS, 61 RBIs) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (.797 OPS, 22 steals, 43 RBIs) drive offense, but this attack lacks depth.
Manager Mike Shildt’s squad has been scraping by with pitching and fielding while staying in the National League wild card race. Then their fielding slipped a bit in Miami as the Padres lost two of three games to the Marlins.
“We’re playing a lot of games where we don’t have a lot of margin for error,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said after his team suffered a 3-2 loss to the Marlins. “We play a lot of clean games and Wednesday. we gave away a little too much that cost us.”
Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has expressed an interest in acquiring more offense before the trade deadline. But Machado said it’s up to the incumbent hitters to produce more.
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“We’ve got to put ourselves in good position, regardless of what happens at the deadline,” Machado told reporters Wednesday. “We want to make a postseason run. We want to get deep into a postseason. That fact doesn’t change whether we do anything or we don’t. We’ve just got to go out there and play better baseball than we did these last few days.”
Writing for , Jeff Passan had this take on the Fightin’ Shildts:
The Padres could be the add-and-subtract kings of this deadline. With a farm system that beyond shortstop Leo De Vries isn't teeming with desirable talent, San Diego could dip into its exceptional bullpen for help. (Robert) Suárez, a potential free agent and the major league leader in saves, is the likeliest option, though teams that have inquired about Dylan Cease haven't been told no.
The available number of catchers is thin, leaving outfield as a potential spot for improvement, and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller never lacks creativity when looking to better his team, happily staying up all hours to pore over video of back-end starting pitchers -- or dream up three-way trade scenarios to make up for the lack of near big league-ready prospects.
Ultimately, the Padres just want to win, and while they've done so enough to find themselves in second place in the NL West and occupying the third wild-card slot at the moment, San Diego needs to deepen a top-heavy roster and do so while staying within budget. It won't be easy.
Meanwhile they are catching a Cardinals team that is struggling every which way heading toward the trade deadline.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Brewers keep turning heads:
Michael Baumann, FanGraphs: “On either side of the All-Star break, the Milwaukee Brewers won 11 games in a row. Even after that streak ended with a paper-thin 1-0 loss in Seattle on Tuesday, they are the hottest team in baseball right now. They’re red hot. No, white hot. They are, to quote the poet, so hot it’s hurting everyone’s feelings. This is not the first time this season that a team has won 11 games in a row; in fact, there have been four double-digit win streaks in the majors this season so far. And in a fun coincidence, three — the Brewers’ streak, plus 10-game win streaks by the Red Sox and Blue Jays — were active at the same time in early July. A winning streak like this doesn’t always make a team’s season; the Twins won 13 in a row in May and are currently contemplating a sell-off. (If they miss the postseason, that will go down as the second-longest winning streak by a non-playoff team in the Wild Card era, behind the 1999 Padres and their futile 14-game run.) But for a team that’s in Wild Card position already, past the halfway point of the season, winning 11 games in a row has a pretty profound effect.”
Gabe Lacques, USA Today: “The amazing Milwaukee Brewers are the worst thing to happen to major league owners crying poor. With commissioner Rob Manfred and a chorus of aggrieved billionaires insisting the game needs a salary cap and shutting down the industry to get one is inevitable, the Brewers simply went out and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers six consecutive times in a two-week span . . . the Brewers tote a payroll of around $120 million; that's far less than the mere tax penalty - right now, an estimated $157 million - the Dodgers will pay on top of a payroll exceeding $400 million. It's a scenario that's not supposed to happen, at least among the ownership side of the looming 2026 labor fight that believes payroll most correlates with success. But rich teams have their problems, too - look at the Dodgers' pitcher IL list - and competence and desire have proven about as important as investment.”
Bob Nightengale, USA Today: “They’re that Toyota Prius in a parking lot full of Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. They’re that ground chuck burger on a menu with tomahawk steaks and lobster tails. They are the unwanted, the discarded, and the castoffs of Major League Baseball. They are the Milwaukee Brewers . . . Well, these anonymous castoffs just may be the best darn team in all of baseball, tied with the Chicago Cubs for baseball’s best record, 60-41, while winning 35 of their last 48 games, including 11 of their last 12. Yes, the Brewers, whose $124 million payroll is the seventh-smallest in baseball, and less than what the Los Angeles Dodgers are projected to pay in luxury tax penalties this year. Yes, the Brewers, who don’t have a single player hitting .300, who has 20 homers, or whose WAR ranks higher than 60ٳin MLB. Yes, the Brewers, who have only two players earning more than $10 million this season.”
MEGAPHONE
“We don’t get recognized anywhere. I mean, even in town, I think I’ve only been recognized once or twice. No one knows who we are.”
Brewers outfielder Isaac Collings, to USA Today.
