2019 Padres Season Preview | Caleb Posner

2019 Padres Season Preview

by: Caleb Posner

Spring training is the fresh start the Padres need.  That is the hope that every Padres fan carries over from year to year.  This false sense of hope is soon crushed by the large volume of guys left on base, 5+ ERAs, lack of homeruns, and an abundance of errors that Padres fans witness as a hopeful spring turns into a disastrous summer.  But this year is different (for real this time). This spring is actually a fresh start, surrounded by a secure sense of hope and the feeling that competing is right around the corner.

The new Padres features actual stars, the number one farm system in baseball, and a winning mentality that seems to be in the air.  This roster is headlined by the biggest offseason addition in Padres history. That contract belongs to Manny Machado who inked a massive 10 year deal for a total of $300 million.  Machado is a 4× All-Star and 2× Gold Glove Award winner. Nobody expected the padres to be capable of pulling this off. The rumors seemed too good to be true, but low and behold the Padres took advantage of the slow free agent market and got their franchise player.  This comes one season after the Padres shocked people by signing Eric Hosmer. The signing of Machado marks a historic change of direction for Padres who have always been a notoriously cheap franchise. They are ready to do whatever it takes to win. They also brought in veteran infielder Ian Kinsler to add a leader to the locker room.  Machado and Kinsler pair with Hosmer to establish a stellar veteran presence in the infield. What makes this even better is the hot talent lava the Padres have as well.

Almost as much attention as the Machado deal got, is the hype surrounding Fernando Tatís Jr.  The 6 foot 4 shortstop is the number 2 prospect in all of baseball and the future of the Padres.  He is one of 10 Padres prospects in the top 100 prospect in the MLB. Other notable names in this group include the number 1 left handed pitching prospect in baseball Mackenzie Gore, the pure hitting second baseman Luis Urias, and hard throwing righty Chris Paddack.  These prospects are the future of an already solid Padres lineup.

So on opening day this year, Padres fans have exciting baseball to cheer for instead of just being happy baseball is back.  The opening day lineup will most likely feature Austin Hedges at catcher, Eric Hosmer at first, Ian Kinsler at second, Luis Urias at short, Manny Machado at third, Wil Myers in left, Manny Margot in center, Franmil Reyes in right, and Joey Lucchesi as our starter.  This lineup is for once actually capable of putting up runs, and this doesn’t even include Tatís Jr. who probably won’t be up for the first 13 games so the Padres can have an extra year of control. So finally Spring Training is a fresh start for the Padres. This team is ready to compete, and they will show flashes of what they can do as they prepare for opening day.