N.L. West In 2015: San Diego Padres

As the winter meetings have been long gone and Spring Training is right around the corner, teams now have a clear consensus of what the roster for the 2015 season will look like. This is the first article in a series that will give you a quick analysis of each team in the National League West.

Everyone including myself was in shock that Padres made the moves that they did. Acquiring Matt Kemp was long rumored and its understandable as new GM A.J. Preller wanted to make a splash and the Los Angeles Dodgers have been wanting to get rid of him so both teams became perfect dance partners. But acquiring Justin Upton and Wil Myers demonstrated that the team is tired of being pushed around in the West and want to win. But what do all the new faces in San Diego represent?

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The answer means that the team will have trouble with their pitching as opposed to their offense. The Padres’ winter can be summarized by the acquisition of those three players but the problem is that they are all outfielders. Also these moves are the ones that reflect what the team did that rolls over onto next season. Petco Park has been known to be predominate a pitchers park so you would imagine that the teams strength would be their pitching but it is not.

As of right now James Shields is a free agent and the Padres have shown to be overzealous this off-season with the moves they have made. Yoan Moncada is now a free agent and A.J Preller was an international scout so that is also a possibility. FanGraphs has the Padres at 79 wins with a run differential of -19. So essentially they are a sub .500 team even with the additions of Upton, Matt Kemp, and Myers. Their starting rotation is not awful with Andrew Cashner, Ian Kennedy, and Tyson Ross leading the charge, but the ceilings of offense and defense for the team are very much apart.

Without a key ace pitcher, the Padres will be inconsistent in terms of generating wins because they might win by a lot with their offense and lose by the same much the next day thanks to the pitching that they have.

What are your thoughts? Are the Padres built to win or are they missing more pieces? Comment below.