Column: Time is now for Padres

Successful Opening Weekend shows that the Friars’ bright future may arrive sooner than expected 

Anderson Haigler / Sports Editor / The USD Vista

If you’re a San Diego Padres fan, you know that this year is different. There’s a buzz around Petco Park, and there’s some excitement on the roster. For the first time in years, there’s a real reason to be optimistic about the on-field product. Yes, after seemingly countless years of futility, the Friar faithful finally have something to cheer for.

But if you would’ve told even the most well-informed fan this past February that their team would arrive at Opening Day with a superstar third baseman at the hot corner, the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball at shortstop, and their top pitching prospect awaiting his turn in the rotation, many people would’ve called you crazy.

“The Padres signing Manny Machado? No way! We’ll never have that kind of money,” they might have told you.

“Fernando Tatis Jr. and Chris Paddack in the major leagues to begin the season? What about their service time?” they might have  asked.

That all changed, however, in mid-February. When the Padres inked generational talent Manny Machado to a 10-year, 300 million-dollar contract, then the largest contract in North American sports history, the script was flipped. With one stroke of the pen, Padres ownership erased all doubt as to whether they were going to open their checkbooks to surround their wealth of top-ranked prospects with proven major-league talent. Before the ink had even dried on Machado’s monumental contract, Padres Executive Chairman Ron Fowler and General Partner Peter Seidler put years of payroll cutbacks, fire sales, and botched trades into the rear view mirror, and put the focus firmly on the future. A bright future, mind you.

Well-educated fans of the team knew success was coming. After MLB.com ranked the Padres’ minor league system No. 1 out of all 30 teams in both 2018 and 2019, Friar fans knew better days were ahead. But questions remained. How many prospects would actually pan out and make it to the big leagues? How much would ownership attempt to manipulate service time by holding top prospects down in the minor leagues? Would the team ever add a proven player to complement their young talent?

The Padres’ Opening Day roster addressed more than a few of those pressing questions. Starting at shortstop was Tatis Jr., the organization’s (and Major League Baseball’s) top prospect, who played his way though a marvelous spring training amidst talk of the 20-year-old beginning his season in Triple-A. To his right, 26-year-old Machado, making a San Diego debut that was rivaled in hype by only that of his young teammate and protege. Around them on the diamond and in the home dugout were the likes of Austin Hedges, Eric Hosmer, Wil Myers, Franmil Reyes, and top-ranked right-handed pitcher Chris Paddack, members of a large major-league roster of young, malleable talent that the franchise has worked tirelessly to accumulate over a rebuilding process that has spanned the last four years. Service time and money be damned, the Padres shelled out the big bucks and bet on their young players in order to put their best lineup possible on the field for the 2019 season.

This at-times inexperienced, but gifted group did not disappoint, taking three of four games from the visiting San Francisco Giants in a series that showcased Tatis Jr.’s prodigious talent, Machado’s elite defense, and Paddack’s explosive pitching on the mound, among many other highlights.  Sure, the Giants might be a pushover of a team as they make their way through the opening stages of their own rebuild, but the wins marked San Diego’s best start since 2011. 

Perhaps more impressive than the players’ performances was the turnout of Padres fans to the ballpark. The team drew 158,767 in total attendance to Petco Park for the season’s first four home games, an average crowd of 39,692. The Opening Day sellout and ensuing near-sellouts in the following days represented an uptick of more than 7,650 fans from last season. The majority of those fans were decked out in Padres gear, with plenty of newly-purchased Tatis Jr. and Machado jerseys on hand, a refreshing change from the understandable apathy surrounding the squad in  the last decade. Opposing teams’ fans dominating the Padres’ home turf has been an issue for the team in past years, but  this weekend the ballyard was rocking with chants of “Let’s go Padres!” throughout the games, and “Man-ny! Man-ny!” each time San Diego’s 300-million-dollar man confidently strode to the plate. In the last 10 years of Padres baseball, very few moments have rivaled what the Padres set forth this past weekend in terms of crowd noise, enthusiasm, and overall positive sentiment.

Yes, questions remain. It was four games out of 162. More prospects will need to pan out, more free agents will need to be acquired, trades will need to be made, star players will need to stay healthy, and stars will need to align for the Padres to bring the first-ever world championship to San Diego. Realistically, the team may be a year away from their full potential. But don’t be surprised if the team overachieves and raises some eyebrows with their performance this season. This year is  different, after all. The time is now. The future is now.