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Projected Team
Lineup
- LF Travis Jankowski
- CF Manuel Margot
- 1B Wil Myers
- RF Hunter Renfroe
- 2B Yangervis Solarte
- 3B Ryan Schimpf
- C Austin Hedges
- SS Erick Aybar
Rotation
- RHP Jhoulys Chacin
- RHP Jered Weaver
- LHP Clayton Richard
- RHP Trevor Cahill
- RHP Jared Cosart
Manager
Andy GreenThe Padres will be home to the most fascinating experiment of the season, with Christian Bethancourt transforming into the hybrid catcher-pitcher we never knew we needed. They’ll be mixing and matching players from their deep minor-league roster all season, and we should get a nice, long look at Manuel Margot and Hunter Renfroe, which is what should happen.
They'll still finish in last place, of course.
The rotation has the potential to be an embarrassing mishmash of stopgaps and failed experiments, though. In 2014, a rotation of Jhoulys Chacin, Jered Weaver, Clayton Richard, Trevor Cahill, and Jarred Cosart would have been endlessly fun to dream on. In 2017, it feels like the cast of a straight-to-video movie.
There are a lot of different paths the Padres could take to call their 2017 season a success, but it all has to do with development and planning for the future, not contending immediately. Other than Dinelson Lamet, most of their best pitching prospects are at least two years away, so they’ll need to build a foundation of hitters to hang around and wait for them.
Of all the teams that have dominated an offseason, only to fail miserably the next year, the Padres landed on their feet better than almost any of them, exchanging their tradable players for top prospects at just the right time. It’s almost enough to make you forget they gave away Yasmani Grandal for an expensive DH, as well as Trea Turner and Joe Ross in a deal for Wil Myers, who is good, but not Trea Turner.
Almost.
— Grant BrisbeeKey Addition
These new Padres' uniforms are trash. What, there weren't enough teams out there wearing just navy blues and grays all the time, you had to once again add to the total? The yellow accents the Padres injected into their uniforms for 2016, when they hosted the All-Star Game and got a logo in the same colors for it, were the most intriguing unis they've had in years. But no, they couldn't stand to be noticed for more than a year at a time, so now it's back to the boring basics. It's all pretty fitting for a basic team, though.
Players who now have to wear the stupid new uniforms: Jhoulys Chacin, Trevor Cahill, Jered Weaver
Key Departure
For real, though, why aren't the standard uniforms just the brown and yellow? Or, if you have an aversion to that color scheme, why not bring back the orange pinstripes? Just do something besides run out blue and gray. Even the weird sand khaki coloring from earlier in the decade was more interesting than the things you're running your players out in most of the time.
Players lucky enough to escape the lack of colorful accents and intriguing visual elements of the new Padres' uniforms: Jon Jay, Brandon Morrow, Derek Norris, Alexi Amarista, Tyson Ross
Best Case
The Padres aren't contending in 2017, that much we can be confident in. They do have a number of young players who should end up with significant playing time in the bigs, though, and productive seasons from the likes of Manuel Margot, Carlos Asuaje, Hunter Renfroe, and the newly powerful Austin Hedges could go a long way toward San Diego deciding to invest in the roster again sooner than later.
Worst Case
A.J. Preller is arrested for insider trading and sentenced to jail time. Padres' ownership responds by demanding even blander uniforms be unveiled for 2018.