Usually the Super Bowl is a time for ardent baseball fans to look ahead – pitchers and catchers are shortly to report.
Not this year – the Padres will be in camp for spring training Sunday, to prepare for the early start to their season, which begins in South Korea on March 20.
The Dodgers, who they will play in that milestone game – the first regular-season MLB contest to be played in Korea – already began workouts, on Friday.
The Friars also open their spring training schedule against L.A., in Peoria on Feb. 22.
Hope always reigns supreme in the spring, but expectations will differ for the Padres in 2024.
They were sky high last season, with Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Juan Soto in the lineup, Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Blake Snell and Josh Hader on the mound and Bob Melvin in the dugout.
Needless to say, after having missed the playoffs in 2023, the Padres fell short of the mark. Now Soto and Hader are gone, and Snell, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, still unsigned as a free agent, is all but gone. Melvin departed for San Francisco, with Mike Shildt stepping in as skipper.
But there are new faces to watch. The Padres made no splashy additions in the off-season, but starter Michael King, acquired in the Soto trade with the Yankees, almost certainly will make the rotation. He’ll be joined by reliever Jhony Brito and catcher Kyle Higashioka, also part of the Soto trade, at the big-league level.
Another recent Yankee, free agent Wandy Peralta, signed with the club Friday, for four years, and as the Athletic reported, $16.5 million. Yuki Matsui and Woo-Suk Go, pros from Japan and Korea respectively, also will join the pitching staff, making their MLB debuts.
Like to keep an eye on the future? The Padres have Ethan Salas, baseball’s leading catching prospect, slated to appear in big-league camp.
So, are there other moves are to come, particularly with Soto and Trent Grisham gone and depth in the outfield thin?
Padres exec A.J. Preller told the Athletic that he thinks there are young players “that we feel good about and we think are going to show well in camp.” But he warned, “we’re not just going to force something just to make a move.”
Regardless of the shape the team takes in Peoria, after their sojourn to Korea, the Padres home opener is set for March 28.
