Despite trailing in every major slash category, San Diego remains in the postseason hunt. Now, Manny Machado and a slumping core must ignite to save their crumbling season.
The San Diego Padres are destined for an exciting Wild Card race for the rest of the 2026 campaign, as they sit in second place in the National League West and nine games behind the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
With the Arizona Diamondbacks hot on their tail, the trade deadline will be huge for general manager A.J. Preller and the Padres this summer. One of the biggest issues to address is undoubtedly the offense, which has been a stain on the entire first half of the season for the Friars.
The San Diego offense has been so poor that it has ranked as the fourth-biggest failure of the entire MLB this year by Bleacher Report – and for good reason. As a team, the Padres have the lowest OPS in the major leagues at .656. They also hold the worst batting average, slugging, and on-base percentages in baseball.
Having an entire slash line that ranks dead last in the sport certainly isn’t a recipe for success, yet somehow the ship hasn't sunk for the Padres. Firmly in the race for one of three Wild Card spots, the Padres are fortunate to be in their current position.
The struggles at the plate for the Padres have not discriminated. Star Manny Machado has been the biggest disappointment of all, as he has just a .185 average as we enter the midway point of the campaign. Some of that is bad luck, of course, but the majority of the metrics on his Baseball Savant page have fallen under the 50th percentile – a stark difference from last season. Still holding a negative WAR this deep into the year, the lack of offensive production from the seven-time all-Star has been a killer for San Diego.
Outfielder Jackson Merrill has joined Machado in the offensive struggles, as his OPS has dropped .142 points from last season. A similar story goes for fellow stars Fernando Tatis Jr. and Xander Bogaerts, with both having the worst offensive years of their careers this season.
The struggles have trickled down past the stars, however, as key players like Freddy Fermin, Jake Cronenworth, Nick Castellanos, and Bryce Johnson have all had horrible seasons at the plate.
“Part of you feels like they have too much offensive talent—particularly with their top trio—to not bounce back in a major way at the plate,” Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly wrote. “But there's no mincing words, the offense in San Diego has been abysmal so far.”
There seems to be a systematic problem in San Diego regarding their lack of offensive production, and whatever it is, they need to figure it out ASAP. You can only hold on to hope for so long with a team that is so poor on offense – it seems inevitable for it all to finally come crashing down.
It’s never too late to get things going, especially given their chances at the postseason despite it all. It all starts with the stars. If Machado, Tatis Jr., Bogaerts, and Merrill can find any rhythm at the plate, the Padres suddenly become a much more dangerous NL club.
