MLB playoff races have a way of exposing every weak spot, and right now the San Diego Padres are living through the bill for a massive commitment to Xander Bogaerts.
Bogaerts, who is 33 and turns 34 in October, has put together one of the roughest statistical seasons of his career. The issue is bigger than a bad stretch, too. San Diego still owes him seven years and $180 million, and that weight is hanging over a team trying to hold its place in the postseason picture.
Frustration around Bogaerts was already spilling onto social media during the game, and he did little to calm it. He went 0-for-2 at the plate, though he did draw a pair of walks.
That performance pushed his batting average down to a career-low .216. His .683 OPS is also the lowest of his career, and his 51 RBI are his fewest in a season since his rookie year, when he appeared in only 18 games.
The contrast with the player San Diego thought it was getting is stark. Bogaerts came with real pedigree: a four-time All-Star who spent his first 10 seasons with the Boston Red Sox and helped them win World Series titles in 2013 and 2018. When the Padres gave him an 11-year, $280 million deal in December 2022, he was supposed to be a major piece of the franchise’s future.
Instead, the decline in production has made the contract harder and harder to defend.
And the timing could hardly be worse. San Diego has 23 games left, sits second in the National League West, and trails the Los Angeles Dodgers by 9.5 games.
The cleaner route to October runs through the Wild Card, where the Padres currently hold the third and final spot. Even there, the cushion is thin, with the Arizona Diamondbacks just a half-game back.
The Padres head into tonight’s rubber match against the Cincinnati Reds needing wins, and they need them from everywhere in the lineup. That includes Bogaerts, a veteran who was expected to be one of the club’s biggest offensive engines.
He still has time to turn the story around. Right now, though, his season is becoming an expensive problem for a team that can’t afford many more.
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Salas has already shown both offensive and defensive promise in Triple-A, which is why the move feels like more than a short-term fill-in. He even got the start against the Cincinnati Reds after the call-up, but the bigger question for San Diego is how much opportunity he gets next, and where he fits as the Padres try to balance development with the urgency of the moment. [Read more 🡒]