If you give a listen to the video above, you’ll hear Padres manager Mike Shildt talking at Saturday’s FanFest about how, despite some high-profile defections and a lack of splashy offseason additions, San Diego is loaded with talent.
He speaks for five minutes, unedited. The question I asked him lasted 16 seconds. We know Shildt is an eternal optimist in the best sense of the phrase, but even in his standards, this was a lot of information.
And if you listen to the whole thing, where he basically breaks down the entire roster, as well as the returning coaching staff, you might feel the same way I did: He just might be right.
The 2025 Padres cupboard is nowhere near being barren, and this could very well be another special season at Petco Park — a sentiment echoed by the players.
“It’s a great team. It’s a great group of guys,” says second baseman Jake Cronenworth. “We learned a ton about each other and about our team last year, and I think we’re more ready than we ever have been going into spring.”
The Padres only lost five players from their NLDS roster that pushed the eventual World Series champion Dodgers to the brink of elimination: Jurickson Profar, Tanner Scott, Kyle Higashioka, Donovan Solano and Martin Perez. Only the first three were major contributors.
When you juxtapose that against what the Dodgers have added since October (Blake Snell, Kirby Yates, Roki Sasaki, Scott, etc.), it’s understandable that the Padres have fallen out of the national conversation.
The guys in the clubhouse don’t expect to be overlooked for very long.
“I think it gets a little bit lost in the mix,” says Joe Musgrove, who is with the team every day as a de facto coach as he recovers from elbow reconstruction surgery. “But, you know, that’s that can be a relief at times for guys. It gives you a little freedom to go out there without the expectation, and then go out and just play baseball. And, you know, we’ll prove that we belong in the conversation.”
They get to start making that statement when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training on Feb. 12.
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