Back in the pre-2012 days, when there was only one wild card spot available, both of these teams would already be considering who to trade at the deadline, as the Padres sit five games behind the Braves and the Diamondbacks 6.5 games back. However, with things the way they are, the Padres—even with their losing record—are in postseason position, holding the final wild card spot that the Diamondbacks put to such good use last season.
There are even a lot of similarities between the teams. The Padres made the decision to go for it, and traded for Juan Soto in 2022. They failed to win the pennant, but did eliminate the Dodgers and reach the NLCS. The Diamondbacks, after a surprising run to the World Series last year, went for it in the offseason, but did so in a more fiscally responsible way. Thus, while the teams rank 14th and 15th in payroll this year (according to Spotrac) the Padres have at least $100 million committed every year through 2033. The Diamondbacks have no payroll commitments beyond 2031, and have less than $100 million committed each year from 2026 onwards. Another similarity is that the highest paid players on each team seem to be underperforming. For the Diamondbacks, that’s Jordan Montgomery and Eugenio Suarez, who are making over $36 million and have been worth -1.1 bWAR between them. For the Padres, Joe Musgrove and Xander Bogaerts are making over $45 million and have been worth -0.6 bWAR, and now both are on the injured list. The Padres’ most valuable position player has been Jurickson Profar, who is only making $1 million this year.
So it is a matchup of two teams that have tried to go for it and underperformed. It is also a matchup of two injury-bitten teams. In addition to Musgrove and Bogaerts, Yu Darvish is also currently on the IL for the Padres, and Manny Machado was limited to DH early in the year. We are far too aware of the Diamondbacks’ injuries so I’ll not rehash them in this space.
The Freight Train is on the Padres’ active roster, so we get our first look at Peralta since the Diamondbacks were driving home runs over his head in the NLDS.
