The Padres are, on paper, a better team than they were a year ago. But baseball games are not played on paper … they’re played on calculators.
At least that’s what a large portion of the Sabermetric community will tell you and the Padres grade out to be a team that sits in the low-to-mid-70 win range. But don’t tell that to the guys in the clubhouse.
The 2018 San Diego Padres expect to surprise a whole lot of people.
“We can be one of the best teams in baseball, for sure,” said newly-acquired shortstop Freddy Galvis. “That’s out mindset. We’re going to try to be one of the best teams in baseball.”
Keep in mind this is a club that won 71 games last year and still has a boatload of question marks in its starting rotation. The Friars have a farm system that has cultivated some of the best young talent in the game but the first wave of prospects is not supposed to be ready for a year or two so why put the expectations this high?
“I think we carry the same level of expectation we’ve always carried,” said Padres Manager Andy Green. “You go into Spring Training with the expectation you’re going to push to be a playoff-contending team. Who cares what anybody else says or what the buzz is?”
Not caring about the buzz is one thing. Being able to overcome the discrepancy in talent level is another. The Padres don’t have as many thoroughbreds as the Dodgers or the Nationals or the Cubs do. Point that out and they give a collective “So what?”
“The way that I look at it is we’re coming to make the playoffs and if we don’t make the playoffs then it’s a failure,” said 3rd baseman Chase Headley, who is back for his second stint in San Diego after an off-season trade with the Yankees. “I think that’s got to be the mentality.”
Headley and the Yanks came one win short of a World Series appearance last year. Chase knows the Padres are not on the same level as New York right now but says that’s no reason to lower expectations.
“It’s never a prudent attitude to just say we’re happy to be here and we’re trying to get better,” said Headley. “No. We’re trying to compete and win every single day and if we do that we’ll have a chance to be in the playoffs.”
Now this sounds a lot like the wistful hope springs eternal in Spring Training optimism every team has but few teams have the ability to make a reality. But, at least right now, this is the attitude of the San Diego clubhouse, and they’re buying into it.
“Why not?” asks relief pitcher Kirby Yates. “Listen I think we already knew last year we were going in the right direction and I think we’re very comfortable with what’s in this clubhouse. We understand what we need to do and it’s just about going out there and doing it.”
Competing in 2018 would put this talented but young club well ahead of its projected window of contention so if the very likely reality of this season sets in and they don’t leapfrog the three returning playoff teams in the National League West this fast don’t lose faith.
“If we don’t do it this year,” said Galvis, “maybe next year.”
