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A year ago, the San Diego Padres were one of the most active teams during the offseason, making several high profile moves that created great expectations for the 2015 season. Unfortunately for the Padres, the fell flat on their face, leaving them with little money to spend and a much different game plan for their offseason heading into 2016.
While San Diego retains some of the players they acquired during last winter’s spending spree, including James Shields, Matt Kemp and Wil Meyers, they had to part ways with several big-name players this offseason. Craig Kimbrel, Joaquin Benoit and Yonder Alonso were traded, while Ian Kennedy and Justin Upton left San Diego via free agency. The loss of those players leaves massive holes in all parts of San Diego’s roster, the bullpen, the rotation and the starting lineup, making it unlikely, at least on the surface, that the Padres will be able to compete in 2016.
To their credit, the Padres did acquire a significant amount of young talent this offseason, most notably in the Kimbrel trade. Of the players involved in that trade, outfielder Manuel Margot is now the team’s top prospect, shortstop Javier Guerra could be the team’s starting shortstop a few years down the line and Logan Allen is a young, projectable lefty, which are always desirable commodities.
The Padres also acquired major league pieces in Drew Pomeranz, Jon Jay and Christian Bethancourt in trades this offseason. Pomeranz should be a useful part of San Diego’s bullpen. Jay could make a meaningful impact if he has a bounce-back year, as he has a track record of being a productive player despite a sluggish 2015 season. Finally, Bethancourt is just 24 and still young enough to develop into a solid big league catcher despite profound struggles with the Atlanta Braves over the past two seasons.
The Padres have also done a fine job using an admittedly small budget filling a few of the holes on their roster with veteran free agents. Carlos Villanueva was signed to help reinforce the bullpen or possibly fill out what could be a solid starting rotation that’s led by Shields. Fernando Rodney was signed to give the Padres a legitimate closer after trading both Kimbrel and Benoit. The Padres also signed Alexei Ramirez to fill the gaping void at shortstop and allow their promising prospects at that position another year or two to develop. These signings may not be enough to make the Padres a contender in 2016, but they at least show that the team is trying to field a competitive lineup.
San Diego’s moves this offseason don’t appear to be conducive to making the team contenders for a playoff spot in 2016. However, the Padres had a rather large mess to clean up after a disastrous 2015 season, and they’ve done a fine job of doing just that. The team was able to free up some money, acquire young talent that could make an impact a few years from now, take a chance on a couple players who may have just needed a change of scenery and sign enough proven players to prevent them from being pushovers in 2016. After the spending spree that was last offseason didn’t payoff, the Padres did a good job of creating a foundation for success in future years, even if it will be hard to find in the immediate future.
Grade: B
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