The Amato Report - Padres
- Jim Santora
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
The Padres took their playoff run to the last week of the season but ultimately fell short. It was a fun run to me, because it made the Phillies sweat bullets. And I enjoyed the morning texts "ermagert my team sucks, we're not making it", only to make it to the world series...k.
Anyway, the Padres enter 2026 with a tough team to navigate: there are a lot of cards with 1/2 usage, Gerrit Cole is out for the year, and Pablo Lopez only has a handful of starts. Plus, there are AL cards everywhere that will be a pain to manage.
NOTABLE OFFSEASON TRANSACTIONS
Acquired: Mike Tauchman; Ty France
The Padres, overall, had a quiet offseason. The Tauchman acquisition was good as it allows them to fill a hole in the offense at a cheap price. Having one less need entering the draft is never a negative! And Ty France is a good grab if you can't upgrade in the draft.
STRENGTHS
The Friars are always solid with defense in the infield and it continues: Swanson and Hoerner are 1's again, and Machado and Goldy are holding their 2 status.
Offense wise, Andy did well holding on to Grisham, who pulled out a monster year against RHP and has a 2 in CF. When you get a chance, you should look at Nico Hoerner's card vs LHP; I think half the card is filled with Single**
OPPORTUNITIES
Depth is a huge issue here. Outside Max Fried and Luis Severino, it's hard finding a suitable #3 starter (Pablo doesn't have enough innings for that). I have Dustin May listed as the #3/#4, which says a lot. I can easily see the Friars going pitching with their #6 overall pick, and even the next few picks after that. They kept most of their picks in this draft, so they should be able to fill some pretty big holes early.
Offense should be good enough to compete when finalized after the draft, but it's still far from scary. 1B & DH vs RHP is a priority and there are no decent catchers on this roster with at bats that can hit. So C will likely be a priority a few rounds into the draft.
Projected lineup (as of now vs RHP)
C - James McCann (less than 100 at bats tho)
1B - Paul Goldschmidt?
2B - Nico Hoerner
3B- Manny Machado
SS - Dansby Swanson
LF - Lars Nootbaar
CF - Trent Grisham
RF - Mike Tauchman
DH - Ty France?
Projected rotation
Max Fried
Luis Severino
Dustin May
Pablo Lopez
Keep an eye on these players in 2026 (in real life)
Trent Grisham - curious to see if he can replicate 2025...remember he was once a super hyped prospect
Gerrit Cole - how does he come back from TJ? How many bananas does he eat in his first start back?
Devin Williams and Ryan Helsley - both big name relievers with down years...how do they bounce back?
2026 projection based on Ed's power rankings: 10th place (7.14, almost 1.50 behind 6th place (Reds) but only .02 behind the Rockies for 9th place)
Andy is a good manager, which I feel bumps his win total up a bit more, but there are a lot of needs that will need to be resolved in the draft in order to seriously compete all season long. The Friars need pitching, and pitching will be there early. I think the question is how do they go about C, DH, and 1B. If you can fill a few of those positions in with good hitters, they should be competing most of the season. I think the ceiling for the Friars is the last wild card spot, given that everything goes right for them in the draft (and rolling). I can see a similar season like last year happening where the Friars compete until the very end of the season just to fall short.
