On Friday the Padres open a 3-game series at Petco Park against the New York Yankees, who come to America's Finest City with Juan Soto back to town for the first time since he was traded for a bunch of pitching. So, it's a good time to look at how San Diego's season is going without one of baseball's most devastating offensive forces.
The answer: they're doing it backwards like the season is taking place in Bizarro World (for those who don't know Bizarro World comes from the Superman universe were everything on the planet Htrae is the exact opposite that it is on Earth). But, for some reason, it's working.
Usually professional sports franchises are good at home and bad on the road. It's common for clubs to be better against bad teams and worse against good teams. Oftentimes teams take a dip in production when they lose MVP-caliber players.
The Padres have done none of that. In fact, they're polar opposites. Submitted for your approval, here is the Padres record in a few common scenarios after 53 games:
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Home = 10-16
Road = 17-10
vs. Winning Teams = 14-10
vs. Losing Teams = 13-16
2024 without Juan Soto = 27-26
2023 with Juan Soto (53 games) = 24-29
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What the heck is going on here? That road record is the 3rd-best in Major League Baseball while the Red Sox are the only other team with a winning overall record that's under .500 at home. There is no easy way to explain it because there is really no way to understand it. This is probably best chalked up to "one of those weird baseball things."
As for the Soto component? That we can speculate on. Since he left more than a few whispers have emerged that he simply did not fit into the Padres clubhouse vibe and that was a source of contention. It makes sense because the Padres trading away one of the best hitters in the game and replacing him with a journeyman who's been league-average for most of his career then having their offense get BETTER doesn't make sense.
However, Jurickson Profar is having an All-Star-caliber season both at the plate and in the clubhouse. We've said it before, Pro leads the league in Vibes Above Replacement. While we can argue whether or not Soto created a fissure in the locker room there is no debating the fact Profar has helped galvanize it.
Before the season very few people picked the Padres to go to the playoffs. If San Diego is truly Bizarro World and the Padres are playing into October, I'm pretty sure plenty of the Friar Faithful will be happy to sell out Krap Octep and watch them make another playoff run.
