Bold as their brown pinstripes, the Padres went large in trading for Soto. Is there long-term risk? Yes.
, the 23-year-old lefty hitter whose career numbers suggest a young Ted Williams and whose inside-out swing recalls a more powerful, though less versatile Tony Gwynn.
How’s this for World Series mettle: Showing he can handle the lethal pitching and nerve-fraying pressure October dishes out, Soto led the Washington Nationals to their only World Series title three years ago. Though not The Favorite, they’re now plausibly capable of bagging the 13 postseason victories necessary to claim a World Series trophy.Of course it likely will take Tatis making a full recovery from the left wrist fracture that has postponed his 2022 Padres debut until coming days, but barring major setbacks, Preller has assembled enough chess pieces to allow manager Bob Melvin and pitching coach Ruben Niebla to dial up useful matchups in the wild-card race and beyond.
Caveat No. 2: Collective chemistry matters in baseball — though less than in several other team sports — so it’s a race against time for the newcomers and the holdovers to congeal in time to eclipse any of several hardened potential opponents, notably the Braves, Dodgers, Astros and Yankees. The scout summed up the risk-reward of the Padres’ push as philosophical. “Would you rather push all your chips in for two to three years and hope for a ring, when at best your odds will be 15 to 20 percent, and then stink for five-plus years if not more?” he asked. Other teams, he said, prefer to hedge risk with an eye toward more sustained contention.
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