The Padres have a sharper edge to them this year. No doubt about it. Just look at the tough-guy posters on display at Petco Park. Padres players look angry. Did someone put pebbles into their cleated shoes?
Resembling fighters who step into a caged octagon, Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts and Jackson Merrill stare with menace onto 19 Tony Gwynn Drive, from near a ticket booth. They glare at folks from inside ballpark elevators.
Even Nick Pivetta shows a bad-boy countenance. He grew up in Canada, where the nice-person ratio is ultra-high.
Also, he’s new to the team. No matter. He’s part of the bad-boy poster lineup.
The overall vibe at the ballpark: “We’re going to kick your butt.”
If nothing else, the edgy schtick makes for quite the coincidence now that the Padres have won all 10 of their home games to start the season.
Enter the East Village Octagon. Leave with broom burns.
The Padres have swept the Braves, Guardians and Rockies.
“Maybe that’s to intimidate the other guys,” a smiling Bogaerts said of the mean-dude look following Sunday’s 6-0 victory over the Rockies. “Maybe it works, so we’ll take it.”
Today, there’s no reason for the Padres to be scowling.
At 13-3, they have MLB’s best record. They’re on top of the heap against right-handed pitching (10-0), against sub-.500 opponents (9-1) and in one-run decisions (5-0).
No one is allowing less runs per game (2.9).
Padres relievers could lay claim to the “Nasty Boys” moniker if it weren’t already taken. Their total of win shares doubles that of the runner-up Giants.
The why to the 13-3 start isn’t complicated.
The Padres are playing clean, opportunistic, clever baseball. Their most talented player, Tatis, worked himself into a smart groove during the offseason and maintained it when the opening bell rang. Smartly slotted into the leadoff spot by Mike Shildt, the 26-year-old Tatis stands second among right fielders in win shares, trailing only Diamondbacks star Corbin Carroll.
Nor does the big-picture fallout from the 13-3 start require deep thinking.
That fallout is this: “The Pivot” ain’t happening.
“The Pivot” refers to Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller trading off players who can be free agents in November — notably co-aces Michael King and Dylan Cease.
The only pivot Preller figures to do will come in his pickup basketball games.
The fast start has all but ensured that Preller will be looking to strengthen this team’s World Series bid, not to subtract from it.
Come July, being out of playing contention in a 15-team league that awards six playoff spots means having a winning percentage of about .450. To drag their 13-3 record to that depth, the Padres would have to fall apart and trip over themselves numerous other times.
There will be downturns, of course. But on this team, there’s too much baseball IQ, pitching, veteran stability and ability to win games in a wide variety of ways for a complete meltdown, absent a cruel injury barrage.
Then there’s this: Numerous MLB teams seem clueless about baseball fundamentals and nuances compared with the Padres, Dodgers, Mets, Phillies and other legitimate big-league squads. Sorry if that’s snooty. Truly, the level of play from many teams has been that bad.
For awhile now, it seems that several ownership groups within MLB are merely biding their time until the much-anticipated labor negotiations to replace MLB’s collective bargaining agreement, which expires Dec. 31, 2026.
By starting so fast, the Padres have also made it less difficult to ensure Yu Darvish will be ready when they really need him.
That’s a very nice bonus. The master of spin is the rare pitcher who makes the Dodgers nervous about a potential October matchup because he can craft and carry out numerous game plans. Darvish, who’ll be 39 this summer, can take ample time in building back from a reported elbow ailment shutting him down in spring training.
One other thing about the Padres coming out like Mike Tyson since the opening bell rang.
If anyone was wondering whether the elimination-game loss to the Dodgers dealt this team a hangover that persisted into the 2025 season, they needn’t waste any more brain cells on it.
The scowlin’ Pads may have been angry for a while, but they’re doing a lot of smiling these days. At least, when the final out is recorded.
