{"id":52798,"date":"2025-07-10T01:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T01:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52798\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T01:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T01:03:14","slug":"padres-avoid-pitfalls-that-have-befallen-diamondbacks-once-a-trendy-playoff-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/52798\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres avoid pitfalls that have befallen Diamondbacks, once a trendy playoff pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entering the baseball year, the Diamondbacks loomed as a Padres problem.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d bought ace Corbin Burnes for $210 million, adding him to MLB\u2019s top 2024 offense.<\/p>\n

Oddmakers favored the Snakes over the Padres, as did several baseball media analysts.<\/p>\n

Then four elbow ligaments blew out, all before summer arrived, deleting Burnes, relief ace A.J. Puk, setup specialist Justin Martinez and starter Jordan Montgomery from Arizona\u2019s active roster.<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks\u2019 playoff bid is now cooked. Look for Arizona\u2019s general manager, former Padres minor leaguer Mike Hazen<\/a>, to deal his corner infielders rather than count on pitching revival from his team, which trailed the Padres by 4 1\/2 games entering Wednesday\u2019s game at Petco Park.<\/p>\n

The bigger story is the way the Padres have outpaced their desert rival in most recent years.<\/p>\n

Since 2021, the Padres stand 12th (.530) in MLB in win rate, while the Diamondbacks sit 21st (.465).<\/p>\n

The \u201823 Diamondbacks did reach the World Series, an event the Padres last visited in 1998.<\/p>\n

But the Padres get even-money odds from me to earn a fourth wild-card playoff berth in six years, while the Diamondbacks should fall short for the eighth time in nine years.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Diego Padres\u2019 Luis Arraez is celebrated in the dugout after scoring a run against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Petco Park on Friday, May 30, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nComparing the clubs<\/p>\n

In media market size, the advantage goes to the Diamondbacks \u2014 they\u2019re 15th of 30 MLB teams, while the Padres sit 26th.<\/p>\n

But the Padres hold two superior cards: San Diego\u2019s spectacular coastal climate and A.J. Preller\u2019s feel for pitching.<\/p>\n

The climate edge translates into better revenues.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not quibble about occasional chilly nights in the East Village. There\u2019s no better climate in MLB for playing and watching baseball than alongside San Diego Bay. This boosts attendance.<\/p>\n

The Phoenix ballpark\u2019s retractable roof provides relief from the brutal heat, but that heat is too powerful to be sealed out.<\/p>\n

Leading up to first pitch Wednesday night, it was 72 degrees in downtown San Diego. Over on Planet Mercury, um, downtown Phoenix, the temperature was about 115.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really are very lucky in San Diego,\u201d John Moores, then-owner of the Padres, said in 1998, while getting his first look at the massive ballpark edifice in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

The Padres have leveraged the great weather at the gate. They finished third, fifth, second and third in attendance from 2021-24 and now stand second, trailing only the Dodgers. That gives Preller more money to spend.<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks sat 24th, 21st, 20th and 11th in attendance the last four years. They\u2019re 13th this year. That\u2019s a signifcant gap.<\/p>\n

On the pitching front, Preller and staff have hit at high rate in the professional markets since the 2020-21 offseason that saw lopsided trades for Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove plus the signings of Nick Martinez and Robert Suarez.<\/p>\n

The Padres\u2019 pitching health, measured against MLB\u2019s injury crisis, has been a strength in that same timeframe.<\/p>\n

Musgrove\u2019s elbow injury in last year\u2019s postseason was a massive bummer for the pitcher, the team and Padres fans. But it surprised no one in baseball.\u00a0 Jake Peavy said it was impressive that Musgrove pitched as long as he did, mentioning his max style. Musgrove, a former reliever, had returned very good value across multiple seasons before the elbow finally gave out.<\/p>\n

Darvish was well past his prime when the Padres got him, yet has avoided a serious arm injury in his Padres tenure. Similarly, Snell suffered no alarming setbacks \u2014 certainly nothing comparable to the shoulder ailment that has sidelined the Dodgers\u2019 $180-million winter addition for most of this season.<\/p>\n

Preller got great value from pitchers Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. Already this season, Nick Pivetta has matched or outperformed the $13.75-million average value on his four-year contract signed in February. In trades, Preller certainly didn\u2019t overpay in getting co-ace Michael King and good-fifth starter Randy V\u00e1squez in the second Juan Soto blockbuster.<\/p>\n

It appears Preller got Dylan Cease for almost free in the Padres\u2019 swap with the White Sox.<\/p>\n

\"ArizonaArizona Diamondbacks pitcher Corbin Burnes throws against the Dodgers in the first inning during a baseball game, Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Rick Scuteri)
\nQuestionable contracts<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks, on the other hand, have taken a splashy approach several times \u2014 only to end up covered with mud.<\/p>\n

Ulnar collateral ligament has become a gloomy phrase in Phoenix. Burnes, 30, went down in his 11th start. The team owes him about $170 million. Check back in 2027 to see if he can regain peak form.<\/p>\n

The team pledged a four-year, $80-million contract to ex-Twins mainstay Eduardo Rodriguez so he could eat innings. A shoulder injury suffered in 2024 spring traning wiped out most of Rodriguez\u2019s first season, and he\u2019s having a bad 2025. Signed for $47.5 million across two years, Jordan Montgomery has returned negative value.<\/p>\n

Martinez, who threw 100 mph before his injury, got a five-year, $18-million contract in March. By June, he was headed to reconstructive surgery.<\/p>\n

He can compare notes with Puk, Burnes and Montgomery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering the baseball year, the Diamondbacks loomed as a Padres problem. They\u2019d bought ace Corbin Burnes for $210…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":52799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-52798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114826250365332174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}