Injuries and Lack of Depth Have Padres Walking a Tightrope

[Randy Holt]

The vibes were incredible for the San Diego Padres in Week 1 of the 2025 Major League season. Less so in Week 2.

After starting off a scorching 7-0, the Friars' fortunes came to a halt at a brisk Wrigley Field over the weekend. They lost two of three to the Chicago Cubs before heading back out west. While they were able to claim a pair from the West Sacramento Athletics, they didn't come through remotely unscathed. 

The series began with Jackson Merrill being placed on the injured list with a hamstring strain. Merrill sat out the series opener in Sacramento on Monday before being placed on the IL on Tuesday. The team isn't expecting him to miss much more than the minimum 10 days, if even beyond that threshold. Nonetheless, it puts a damper on his excellent start and the nine-year extension he signed last week. 

Worse yet, a big loss to the A's on Tuesday night saw Jake Cronenworth and Fernando Tatis Jr. leave with injuries. Cronenworth experienced cramping in his ribs coming off a hit by pitch on Sunday. Tatis tweaked his shoulder on an awkward-looking swing and further aggravated it on a slide to third. Neither player was in the lineup for the series finale on Wednesday afternoon. But neither expressed concern, either. Tatis explicitly stated he'll avoid an IL trip of his own; Cronenworth expects to be in the lineup on Friday. The Padres have a day off Thursday. 

While it's a massively positive outcome — really, on all three counts — the scare really underscores the lack of depth throughout the big league ranks for the Padres. 

Tatis and Merrill were both off to as good a start as any position player in the league. Both players sit at 0.7 fWAR, putting them among the league leaders in a small sample. By wRC+, they're the team's two best hitters, with Merrill at 202 and Tatis at 175. Cronenworth sits third at 159. Together, they represent the biggest impact of the team's current roster. Merrill's ISO is at .297 and Cronenworth's is .229. Those are the two highest isolated slugging marks on the team. When you remove that level of impact from any big league roster, there are going to be questions.

But those questions loom even larger for a Padres team visibly lacking in lineup depth, both on the current roster and in the minor league ranks. Sure, Manny Machado is off to a strong start (142 wRC+). But he's the final piece of this top-heavy puzzle. When you start to look past him, the picture gets murkier. 

Luis Arráez is wRC+'ing 118, but needed a stretch of 11 hits in four games to get there. Prior to that, he had only four hits across eight games. Gavin Sheets looks like the ideal change-of-scenery guy (143 wRC+), but he's also hitting almost exclusively against right-handed pitching. Xander Bogaerts is exactly average by wRC+ but has demonstrated virtually zero power to date. 

From there, it's a smattering of platoon and bench options. Martín Maldonado and Elias Díaz. Jason Heyward and Brandon Lockridge. Jose Iglesias. Yuli Gurriel. Of the team's collection of stopgap, non-roster invite types, only Sheets has demonstrated the ability to provide consistent offense. And that's in a super defined — and as such quite limited — role. The departures of players like Ha-Seong Kim, Jurickson Profar (current suspension notwithstanding), and even Kyle Higashioka removed a massive chunk of the supplementary offense. 

In the system, it's difficult to see where the offense could come from down the line. Each of (recently recalled) Oscar Gonzalez and Luis Campusano are off to strong starts in El Paso, but neither has shown the ability to be anything resembling consistent at the top level. Maybe Tirso Ornelas gets a shot at a bench gig. Maybe Connor Joe does. Ultimately, though, it's not as if stability is to be found elsewhere within the organization should the worst transpire. 

Luckily for the Padres, the worst has not, in fact, transpired at this point. Tatis and Cronenworth were able to avoid IL stints entirely, while Merrill's should only hold him out within range of that 10-day mark. The team, top-heavy though it may be, is in fairly good shape. But when you've got a series of scares like the team has had this week, you start taking stock of some things. And while it's not a surprise, down the bench and into the system isn't in great shape for an "in case of emergency" situation.

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[Brandon Glick]

All the years of trading depth and prospects for the star guys is catching up. It's an old team, save for Tatis and Merrill. Not sure how the Padres are going to survive a 162-game gauntlet, but the talent is there to win big.