The San Diego Padres have had a pretty lackluster 2021 season, to say the least, after making the playoffs last year in the wild card it looks right now that that may not be possible. The team was looking to do more and add to the postseason experience by winning the pennant. Their problems originate not just from one glaring error, it’s been between injury problems, players not necessarily playing to their ability, and just being graced with having to play in one of the harder divisions in the league.
Their injury problems began before the season even started; former pitcher Cleveland pitcher Mike Clevinger would be the first of six total pitchers needing the season-ending Tommy John surgery for the elbow, another blow would be another starter as well and one of the young and upcoming talents of the organization at only 22 originally from Cuba, Adrian Morejon. He was slated to be a starter or at least an extra arm in the bullpen for relief. Their overall team ERA in 2020 for the Padres was 3.86, this season they’re currently at 3.88. So maybe the pitching isn’t a complete area to look at, obviously, it wasn’t getting better but they had lots of injuries so a slight dip would have been expected. An issue the Padres also have in their pitching department is a lack of production from their ace. Yu Darvish was traded in December from the Chicago Cubs to the Padres, he is a 35-year-old well-regarded pitcher who made his debut in 2012 for the Texas Rangers. His career lifetime ERA is 3.57, and this year his ERA is 4.32. I believe that can be looked at as a problem for the Padres as he would be expected to at least be producing his average or maybe have hoped and anticipated he’d have a better ERA.
The batting seems to be the main area of concern as they did not have a better OBP to compensate for their pitching not being its best. Fernando Tatis Jr did have a few shoulder injury scares but he was never on the IL for anywhere longer than 10 days,. Thankfully his hitting has not been an issue whatsoever as his home run tally has already been more than doubled from last year where he had 17 and this year currently he has 39. In 2020 the Padres OBP was .333, currently, their 2021 OBP is .320. It’s a decline everywhere on the numbers because their top payroll player Manny Machado’s batting average took a dip compared to last year, and his home run production hasn’t been what they would have hoped either as his highest in a year was 37, but he is currently at 24 and only made it to 30 home runs with 32 in his first year in San Diego in 2019.
The Padres mix all these injuries and players not performing day in and day out in a division that has the Dodgers who just won the World Series last year, and the Giants above them this year who have won three World Series championships since 2010. I believe the Padres don’t have anyone to blame but themselves, injuries happen, but the pitching numbers are still consistent. They know they’re in a tough division and if they want to get into a wild card spot they have to win so many of these series to not only get into the playoffs but to actually win some playoff games. Maybe some of the blame could fall to the coaching staff. I have never been a fan in any sport of just firing the coach and putting all the blame on them, because like I have mentioned the numbers show that their players just are not producing as consistently as previous years. Unfortunately, they are the coaches and they get paid to put together the rosters and work with the players, which includes getting the best out of them right now. We currently see Manager Jayce Tingler getting the worst out of some of their marquee players like Manny Machado. We see by the numbers that Darvish is having a bad pitching year.
The NL West is very similar to the AL East division in my opinion with the daily competition and how much you have to put out throughout the season as a team to get a spot in the playoffs in one of these cutthroat divisions. The coaches have to make sure the players are ready and prepared despite injuries happening. In any sport and it’s how you overcome it to play better to their ability and expectations that matters.
