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The San Diego Padres have always been considered an underachieving team compared to successful MLB franchises such as the Red Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers. They have gone through rebuilds, rebrands, and even new stadiums. The Padres were synonymous with mediocrity in the city of San Diego and things were set to be the case for the next generation of Padre fans.
After years of underperforming throughout the 2010’s the Padres built their farm system and developed young players that would slowly turn into MLB-ready players. The rise of phenom Fernando Tatis Jr., a superstar Shortstop out of the Dominican Republic who was seen as the savior of baseball in San Diego giving fans much needed faith.
That, along with the smart and bold General Manager A.J Preller, they created a team that formed around Tatis and superstar Manny Machado (who signed a 10-year 300-million-dollar deal) as well as other key pieces creating a ballclub that rivaled their most fierce adversary: the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Padres first postseason appearance in over fourteen years was in 2020 as they lost in the NLDS to the eventual champion Dodgers. This was a start of something in San Diego as it created a buzz and expectation for the team to reach the postseason multiple times. This led AJ Preller to add starting pitching depth such as Blake Snell and Yu Darvish. Preller wasted no time and locked up his 22-year-old Shortstop to a 13-year 340-million-dollar extension.
While the core of Padres is strong, they still needed firepower to compete against the World Series Favorites. A.J Preller did just that as he made the biggest trade in MLB history acquiring Juan Soto from the Washington Nationals.
Juan Soto going to San Diego shows that the Padres are all in to win a World Series. Juan Soto, a 23-year-old superstar, is on a trajectory that would make him a first-ballot Hall of Famer and could go down as one of the best pure hitters the game has ever seen.
The Padres ability to draft and develop young talent allowed Preller to pull the trigger on this deal. Juan Soto, Manny Machado, and Fernando Tatis Jr. being in the same lineup every night at Petco Park will bring fans to the stadium and will create needed revenue to a small market team. A small market city like San Diego does not attract much revenue compared to big urban cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
The Padres intention of gamble and commit to create a winning culture in such a disadvantage to other teams makes their story special as they continuously fight the odds that everybody has against them to achieve greatness.
Hopefully, the Padres inspire other small market teams like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Oakland to reestablish themselves into a championship contending team as it would create a more diverse and intriguing dynamic of the already unpredictable game of baseball.
By: Nicolás Andreu
