Power Ranking the Worst Moments of the San Diego Padres Offseason

The Padres have had such a dreadful string of offseason developments, we figured they deserved a ranking to capture the depression.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 15: Tanner Scott #66 of the San Diego Padres pitches against the San Francisco Giants in the bottom of the seventh inning at Oracle Park on September 15, 2024 in San Francisco, California. In honor of Roberto Clemente day some players around the league has chosen to wear the jersey number 21. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 15: Tanner Scott #66 of the San Diego Padres pitches against the San Francisco Giants in the bottom of the seventh inning at Oracle Park on September 15, 2024 in San Francisco, California. In honor of Roberto Clemente day some players around the league has chosen to wear the jersey number 21. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

There’s a scene in Fight Club in which the most dislikable-but-somehow-still-famous-and-coveted-by-Hollywood actor known as Jared Leto manages to get his face beaten in like a tomato going up against a Thwomp.

Leto’s character, Angel Face, showcases a naive enthusiasm right before the beating, with little knowledge of the nuclear crapstorm that’s headed his way — and much of it, one might argue, is undeserved. 

That’s what it’s felt like being a Padres fan over the last few months, from the pluckish attitude when they were up 2-1 against the dastardly Dodgers, to the 24 scoreless innings and hellish offseason that gave way to the mutilated near-corpse of our pal Angel Face.

It wouldn’t be the first time that an incredibly successful baseball season was followed up by a silent winter — this is MLB, after all, and the owners need their extra yachts — but the Padres feel particularly sad. 

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A historically irrelevant organization changed in a major way, with big free agents and stars in a small market, is being punished by the baseball gods. Why?

There are a bunch of reasons, but that’s not what we’re here for today. Today we’re here for humor, and that shall be done in the form of power ranking the worst moments of this offseason, because why not? Nothing matters anymore anyway. 

I don’t really believe in the sentiment that great art tends to coincide with times of suffering and depression, but Just Baseball staff writer Clay Snowden keeps mocking me for not writing more often so here we go. 

12. Ditching the City Connects

That’s right, there are twelve of these bad boys.

Despite what some fascists would have you believe, the Padres City Connects were resplendent joy. “Taco Bell, Baja Blast looking uniforms” is what the naysayers would proclaim, to which I respond with a resounding yes, and? 

But the reason this comes in at the last spot is, aside from uniforms being relatively inconsequential, is due to the fact that they’ll at least be getting new City Connects next season. But even still, this is sacrificing joy for potential joy, so it’s worth noting.

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Read the room next time, you feckless bureaucrats. 

11. Losing Kyle Higashioka and Signing Martin Maldonado

He wasn’t a star, but Kyle Higashioka produced the most fWAR (1.6) by a Padres catcher in a single season since Austin Hedges in 2018. The signal that the Padres wouldn’t re-sign a player that signed onto a two-year, $13.5 million deal with the Rangers coupled with the signing of Martin Maldonado (-2.7 fWAR over the last two seasons) was a body blow. 

Sure, they later signed Elias Diaz, but at that moment it was a bummer. 

10. Padres Twitter Legend, DSG, Being Burned Alive By Dodgers Outfielder Kiké Hernández

Bruh. 

9. Tanner Scott Signing With the Dodgers

Honestly, this one is kind of funny? Like not fun funny, but what-even-matters-anymore funny. 

It’s not just that Tanner Scott was an awesome reliever for the Padres, or even that he signed with the Dodgers, but that he was so dominant against Shohei Ohtani. It’s not all that dissimilar to Kevin Durant, the biggest threat to the Warriors’ dominance, signing with the Warriors. 

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They did this to spite us. They wanted us to suffer. It’s fun for them.

8. When I, the Writer of this Article and in the Midst of All this Pain, Remembered the Padres Clutch Numbers Are Unlikely to Repeat

With all the calamity — most of which we haven’t even gotten into yet — it’s a double punch to the gut remembering just how good the Padres were at driving in runs at the right time in 2024. Their 149 wRC+ in high-leverage situations was the best in baseball by a wide margin, with the second place team, the Dodgers, managing a 117 wRC+ in such situations. 

Considering that in baseball a “clutch” factor tends to be inconsistent year-to-year, and their loss of players that aided in this effort (e.g. Kyle Higashioka, Donovan Solano, Jurickson Profar) I am…worried. 

7. Losing Ha-Seong Kim

Arguably the premiere fan-favorite of the team over the last three seasons (just ask Manny Machado), Ha-Seong Kim was a defensive wizard and overall impossibly endearing player to watch.

Even with a shoulder injury that hampered his market — resulting in a 2-year, $29 million deal with the Rays — it isn’t a surprise that the team lost him in free agency. But it’s also the roster construction, in particular, that makes the loss so agonizing. 

Losing Kim is a reminder of how the Padres decided to sign Xander Bogaerts — which, as another reminder, looks horrid — to an 11-year deal despite already having Kim, prospect Jackson Merrill when he was originally an infielder, and current top prospect and shortstop Leodalis De Vries.

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So yeah, this sucks, man. 

6. Michael King and Dylan Cease Landing on the Trade Market

One of the strengths of the 2024 team was their pitching, and the pre-season acquisitions of Michael King and Dylan Cease were the main factors of such success. And yet, trade rumors galore.

Yes, it’s true the team just recently came to an agreement with King for this season (as Just Baseball managing editor Ryan Finkelstein broke down), and hope has been hard to come by for much of the offseason. 

But even still, the team being in this position — especially with King, which was the first time in 10 years that the Padres hadn’t settled with a player in arbitration — is a microcosm of the dire position the Padres find themselves in. 

5. The Mets Being in Trade Talks for Dylan Cease

Why did this report on the Mets, specifically, as trade partners make the list? Let’s get philosophical for a second. 

In the show Atlanta, there’s a scene in which Donald Glover’s character, Earn, laments the reality of his life being one of constant losing. “Are some people just supposed to lose? Are there some people on Earth who are just supposed to be here to make it easier for the Winners?” he says to a mysterious stranger on a bus. The Mets potentially getting Dylan Cease brought me back to this existential angst. 

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Is it only possible for one MLB team at a time to change its philosophy and enter a period of prosperity?

The Padres tried, and this offseason has eluded to it being a failure, to do such a thing; are the Mets the next one up?

Is MLB’s problem of many teams and greedy owners never trying to spend something that can only be ever-so-slightly ameliorated?

Am I even making sense right now? Should I put down the beer and try writing again later?

4. Blake Snell Signing With the Dodgers

Another former Padre, one who won a Cy Young with them, goes to the division rival. After everything else that’s happened — all the pain, all the suffering — this was an infinity blade right to the sternum. 

And they’re gloating over it, too, which is like Tony Stark taunting Oliver Twist. 

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3. Losing Jurickson Profar to the Braves.

Saying that San Diego will miss this uncanny, beautiful soul is an understatement.

Jurickson Profar was not only a beloved fan favorite, but one who somehow managed to find his way — with the Padres of all teams, holy shit — in his eleventh year in the league. And the Padres, despite his heroism and their dire need of an outfielder, lost him.

But what really punctuated the pain even further was his reference to the team’s ownership issues being a major factor in why he didn’t re-sign with the team. Speaking of which…

2. The Lawsuit

“Disaster has come for you who live in the land. The time has come; the day of confusion is near. There will be no happy shouting on the mountains.” – Ezekiel 7:7

When the news broke that Sheel Seidler, widow of the late Peter Seidler, was filing a lawsuit against Rob and Matt Seidler for control of the team…that’s when the despair fully sank in. It’s the catalyst for everything mentioned in this stupid article thus far.

It was the first official sign that the team’s prospects were in grave danger not just in the short term of this hellscape offseason, but possibly in the long run, too. 

Cited by Profar, and exemplified by the team’s overall lack of spending since Peter’s passing, the Padres ownership squabble is one we’ll likely not see an end result to anytime soon. 

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1. Losing the Roki Sasaki Sweepstakes

Simply put: Roki Sasaki was the one thing that could’ve salvaged this Padres offseason. The Japanese phenom was a rare specimen for not just his athletic ability, but also due money not being the deciding factor for where he’d end up landing. 

One might argue that the Sasaki sweepstakes were a bit of a farce and he’d made up his mind months ago, but there’s no doubting the Padres were at least in the running.

And yet, Roki chose — understandably so, given the aforementioned ownership strife — the Dodgers. A team that already has Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, and a litany of other good starters (e.g. Bobby Miller, Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw) acquired a pitcher they didn’t even really need and for barely a dime. 

Other teams are certainly suffering more than the Padres as a whole, but this offseason has been their magnum opus of nuclear misery.