The San Diego Padres joined Major League Baseball as one of four new expansion teams in 1969, two in the American League â the Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots, who moved to Milwaukee in 1970 to become the Brewers â and two in the National League, the Padres and Montreal Expos. In the 56 seasons since, two of those teams have yet to win a World a Series.
The Royals won twice, in 1985 and 2015. The Expos had to move to Washington D.C. and become the Nationals to finally win one, in 2019. The Brewers have never won one â and neither have the Padres, though they have been to World Series twice, in 1984 and 1998.
But the 2025 Padres team has something very important in common with those two National League pennant winners. All three teams started their respective seasons winning nine of their first 11 games. The 1984 team ended up winning 92 games and the NL West Division, in the pre-Wild Card era. The 1998 team collected 98 wins.
Early Season Good Vibes Dampened by Bad News
Now, the Padres may find their momentum halted by a series of injuries to key players that seem to have struck all at once.
The bad news for the San Diego squad began on Tuesday prior the Padres’ game in West Sacramento, California, against the newly relocated Athletics, formerly of Oakland. That’s when manager Mike Shildt announced that last season’s Rookie of the Year runner-up, centerfielder Jackson Merrill, would be placed on the 10-day injured list with a hamstring strain.
âThe good news is, at the moment, it doesnât appear to be anything overly serious,â Shildt told the media on Tuesday. âThere wasnât a traumatic event that caused it. There was some tightness that clearly is real. Heâs working really diligently, as you would expect, to get treatment.”
Merrill made it through his rookie season healthy, playing in 156 games plus all seven of the Padres postseason games, blasting 24 home runs and finishing with an .826 OPS after earning an NL All-Star selection. But just 11 games into his sophomore campaign, Merrill is making his first-ever trip to the IL â after playing a crucial role in the team’s hot start.
In those 11 games, Merrill already hit three homers and two doubles among his 14 hits, for an eye-opening 1.090 OPS. But for at least the next week-and-a-half, the Padres must try to keep their momentum going without Merrill in the lineup.
Merrill’s maiden IL stint comes just a week after the 21-year-old agreed to a nine-year, $135 million contract extension with the Padres.
Tuesday Especially Bad For Padres News
As if the loss of the 2021 first-round draft pick (27th overall) wasn’t bad enough, Tuesday was day of disaster for the Padres. Not only did they suffer a lopsided 10-4 defeat to the Athletics, with ace Dylan Cease getting shelled for a shocking nine earned runs in four innings, but they also lost another outfielder and their starting second baseman.
Rightfielder Fernando Tatis Jr., a two-time All-Star with 129 career home runs in his six seasons, left the game in the fifth inning after feeling discomfort in his right shoulder â the same shoulder that was surgically repaired in 2022.
The Tatis injury came two innings after two-time All-Star second baseman â the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up â Jake Cronenworth exited with what was described as “cramping” in his ribcage.
While neither player has been placed on the IL, the extent of their injuries remains unclear as of Wednesday. The Padres were scheduled to wrap up their three-game series with the Athletics on Wednesday afternoon, and Shildt said that neither Tatis nor Cronenworth would play in that game, before the team has scheduled off-day on Thursday.
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