It has become a challenge to keep coming up with new ways to convey how unproductive the Padres\u2019 offense has been over the past 6\u00bd weeks.<\/p>\n
Here is my attempt for today:<\/p>\n
Major League Baseball teams win nearly 73% of the time when they score at least four runs this season.<\/p>\n
The Padres are 31-12 (.721) when they score at least four runs this season. Their 43 games scoring that much are eighth fewest in the major leagues, and they have done it just 18 times in their past 42 games.<\/p>\n
They have gone 18-24 in that span and have fallen a season-high one game out of the final National League playoff position.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/standings_980e3e.png\")
<\/p>\n
In an effort to avoid a further fall, it might be time to pull the trigger on a solution at catcher.<\/p>\n
It has been stressed in this space repeatedly that whatever improvements the Padres make from outside will not have the desired impact if the top of the lineup doesn\u2019t start producing at a higher level collectively.<\/p>\n
That is a belief held by virtually everyone in the organization.<\/p>\n
So is the idea they need help to give their offense some length and depth.<\/p>\n
Manager Mike Shildt has certainly given the impression he could hardly care less what his catchers do at the plate as long as they are doing their jobs behind the plate.<\/p>\n
That is not a belief held as deeply by everyone in the organization.<\/p>\n
Especially as Mart\u00edn Maldonado\u2019s batting average has fluctuated between .163 and .194 since mid-May. It is currently .180, and he was lifted for a pinch-hitter last night in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
Shildt would not bite on questions regarding the potential competitive disadvantage his team is placed at by removing his catcher\u00a0 after one at-bat and spending a bench bat and a second catcher in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
There was no reason to push beyond a couple questions. Shildt doesn\u2019t publicly criticize players or even come close to acknowledging their shortcomings for public consumption.<\/p>\n
Besides, what he did say about pinch-hitting for Maldonado with two on and one out in the fifth inning of a game the Padres trailed 3-0 actually conveyed all we needed to know.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a fairly easy decision, quite frankly,\u201d Shildt declared.<\/p>\n
He was not inserting Barry Bonds. It was not even Gavin Sheets or David Peralta that Shildt was inserting in the game before then having to use his second catcher of the night.<\/p>\n
What Shildt called his \u201cmagic bullet\u201d in that situation was Trenton Brooks, a 29-year-old who in his two stints in the majors leagues is now 5-for-38 (.132) with a double and a home run. (He did hit a pinch-hit homer off Matt Sauer in Los Angeles two weeks ago. He was facing Zack Wheeler last night.)<\/p>\n
It is troublesome enough that Shildt has pinch-hit for Maldonado in nearly two-thirds of his starts, usually in the seventh inning or later but once before in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
To do it as early as he did last night is a major indictment on what Shildt is working with.<\/p>\n
The Padres have been looking on the trade market not just for a right-handed bat to play left field (or be their DH) but also a catcher who can hitter better than what they have. There isn\u2019t a lot out there. Maybe they can line up later. Or maybe the top of the order will heat up to the point they can actually survive with Maldonado catching half their games.<\/p>\n
Or maybe they should give Luis Campusano a chance.<\/p>\n
A real chance. Not the three games and then send him down kind of chance he got in early May. Or the chance a few weeks later where he\u00a0 pinch-hit once, served as the designated hitter in three of the next six games and then did not play for 11 days, then pinch-hit against a position player, then was the DH in a game four games later and then was sent back down to Triple-A.<\/p>\n
This is not to say the 26-year-old Campusano is the answer. He is 0-for-18 with six walks this season. He has struck out nine times and grounded out to the left side of the infield five times. He has put three hard-hit balls in play.<\/p>\n
There are not many left in the organization who still believe wholeheartedly he can be a major contributor. That is obvious.<\/p>\n
But Campusano has the highest OPS (1.064) in the Pacific Coast League. The reports from there are also excellent regarding his effort and focus and his handling of the pitching staff.<\/p>\n
And as meaningless as his Triple-A numbers might be, it\u2019s not as if Campusano has not accomplished anything in the big leagues.<\/p>\n
He entered this season having played in 168 MLB games. He was batting .250 with a .684 OPS.<\/p>\n
Either he can play for the Padres, or he can\u2019t. Given the circumstances, it is probably time to find out once and for all.<\/p>\n
Learning, leaping<\/p>\n
Jackson Merrill made his leaping catch at the wall to rob Max Kepler of a home run in the third inning look so easy that it might seem he has been practicing plays like that his whole life rather than just the past year-and-a-half.<\/p>\n
The former shortstop, who worked on becoming a left fielder in the winter before last season and then became a center field in the spring before last season, played a solid center field in 2024.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t silky like this. It seemed strangely certain from the start that Merrill was going to catch Kepler\u2019s 408-foot blast.<\/p>\n
He glided back 78 feet, watching the ball over his shoulder the entire time, reached the wall, jumped and caught the ball about three feet above the wall before landing on the warning track and jogging back toward the dugout.<\/p>\n
\nJACKSON MERRILL ARE YOU SERIOUS?! \ud83e\udd2f pic.twitter.com\/9zycPrPLvE<\/a><\/p>\n