Last October, the San Diego Padres came within one game of knocking the Los Angeles Dodgers out of the playoffs early -- one game. San Diego manager Mike Shildt thinks of that division series race often, but not with regret, or bitterness, or frustration; he is not fixated on crossroad moments in the losses in the final two games of the best-of-five series.
What is embedded in Shildt's memory, he recalled in a conversation earlier this week, is how the Padres players responded in Game 2, when fans pitched garbage at them at Dodger Stadium. They supported each other, Shildt said; they lifted one another, with third baseman Manny Machado gathering the players in the dugout to address the chaos. "In a huge moment, a riotous atmosphere, our group got even closer together," Shildt said, "and we played even better."
In that moment and throughout the series, the Padres demonstrated they can thrive in the biggest moments on the biggest stage, and after Los Angeles went on to win the World Series, manager Dave Roberts and some Dodger players acknowledged that San Diego was the best team they faced in the playoffs. This year, the Padres are back and better than ever, and Machado and others have credited that near-miss of last October for helping launch the Padres into this season with an even greater confidence and more swag. On the backs of baseball's best bullpen and the best version of Fernando Tatis Jr. that we've ever seen, the Padres have started 15-4, allowing only 51 runs, dominating despite an early wave of injuries that sidelined center fielder Jackson Merrill and second baseman Jake Cronenworth.
"It speaks to the depth," Shildt told reporters after the series win earlier this week against the Chicago Cubs. "It speaks to the mentality of the team. It's never going to be a straight line. ... It's how you handle the deviations."
"It's just the whole group approach," Tatis said. "Everybody feeds off each other."
This will be a must, apparently, in the NL West, the division that the Padres GM A.J. Preller noted is like the SEC of the big leagues this year; the NL West's fourth-place team, the Diamondbacks, went into the weekend tied for baseball's fourth-best record.
After the series loss to the Dodgers, Preller said, the conversations were forward-thinking. "We focused on -- 'now go and get better,'" he said. "We weren't good enough. And this was the message from Shildt in spring training: 'How do we get better?'"
For Tatis, this meant moving to the leadoff spot, where his speed and power could immediately impact opponents, while affecting simplifying changes in his stance and his approach. Before this season, Tatis averaged about 2 strikeouts for every walk; in 2021, when he finished third in the MVP race, he compiled 153 strikeouts and 62 walks. So far this year, that ratio has dramatically shifted: He has nine strikeouts and 10 free passes, including a bases-loaded walk drawn against the Cubs in a key moment Wednesday.
With the Padres leading 3-2 in the eighth inning and the count full, Tatis started to swing at a sweeping breaking ball from Luke Little -- but under control, Tatis checked his swing as the ball swerved out of the strike zone. Tatis flipped the bat nonchalantly as he started to walk toward first, the crowd around him roaring for the insurance run.
There are hitters who simply don't have the ability to recognize pitches that will end up out of the zone, Preller said, but Tatis can -- and he has made the decision to be more patient at the plate, to be more discerning. "He is so talented -- he can do anything," Preller said.
"He is such a talent, and this guy is exceptionally smart," Shildt said. "He has an ability to evolve and see the game ... He is learning how to channel his aggression." Tatis' early-season on-base percentage of .425 is nearly 60 points higher than his career high. When pitches are thrown in the zone to him, his contact rate is 79.9%, a best-ever for him, and he's doing damage, with six homers and 16 runs.
The question of how to help the Padres get better was a little more complicated for Preller, working within the context of organizational change. Sheel Seidler, the widow of the late San Diego owner Peter Seidler, filed a lawsuit against Seidler's brothers, Matthew and Robert, with possible control of the team at stake. Preller is typically among the most proactive general managers in baseball, but amid the fight at the ownership level, the Padres did very little early in the offseason.
Preller weighed interest in starting pitchers Dylan Cease and Michael King, as well as closer Robert Suarez and first baseman, as he weighed alternatives in how to best use his allotted resources. The Padres' payroll had been $291.2 million in 2023, then cut to $227.8 million in 2024, and choices had to be made for 2025. The Padres signed Nick Pivetta to a backloaded contract that pays the right-hander $1 million in salary this year, plus around a $3 million signing bonus. And Preller inked infielders Gavin Sheets ($1.6 million) and Jose Iglesias ($3 million), as well as outfielders Jason Heyward and Connor Joe for barely above the minimum salary.
Those financial choices with the rotation and the position-player group enabled Preller to mostly keep the team's bullpen intact from last year, other than the departure of free agent Tanner Scott.
"The Dodgers have a bullpen full of closers," one rival evaluator said. "But the Padres' bullpen might be better." That is empirically accurate so far this season. The Padres' relievers have combined for a 1.52 ERA, allowing only 41 hits in 71 innings.
Preller remembers what Kyle Higashioka, a catcher with the Padres last October, had said about the San Diego-L.A. Division Series -- whoever wins that series, Higashioka had predicted, would win the World Series. "This is the best team I've been on," Higashioka told his GM.
There are a lot of players in the Padres' clubhouse with a lot of winning in their respective careers who felt the same way, Preller believed. The early-season results this year suggest San Diego is a great team again, aiming to get back to where they were last October, and beyond.
