By nearly all national media accounts, the Padres had a great off-season, now capped by the relatively inexpensive signing of ace starter James Shields for $75 million.
For the Padres, landing Shields — who averaged 233 innings and a 124
ERA+ over the last four years — is the icing on top of a spectacular
offseason that saw them upgrade their lineup via trades for outfielders Matt Kemp, Justin Upton and Wil Myers, infielder Will Middlebrooks and catcher Derek Norris.
With Shields in place, the Padres, whose pitchers already have the
advantage of one of the most extreme pitchers' parks in baseball, have a
strong top four in their rotation. Shields slots in as the veteran ace,
late-bloomer Tyson Ross (an All-Star in 2014 at the age of 27) lands the 1A position, hard-throwing Andrew Cashner takes the No. 3 spot, and 30-year-old Ian Kennedy,
who has averaged 201 innings per season with a league-average ERA+ over
the last five years, is the way down in the fourth slot. The last starter will come from additions Brandon Morrow or Brandon Mauer (who may start in AAA), or Cuban Odrisamer Despaigne or lefty Robbie Erlin.
San Diego has turned more than over half of their fielders and quickly re-tooled twenty percent of their rotation.
New GM AJ Pellier has decided that he was going to make his mark quickly. The Padres are a small market team that needs to win in order to draw fan support. San Diego proper is an expensive place to live, and contains a transient military-navy population. Adding familiar names like Shields, Kemp and Upton are bound to make the ticket office and public relations easier this season. Fans are excited by the prospect of having a winning team in a very competitive NL West.
The only down side of the moves is that a few of the new acquisitions, Myers and Middlebrooks, seemed to fail at their potential in their last stops. Kemp and Morrow are injury prone players. So it possible that despite all the good moves, bad luck could shut down the season quickly.
However, fans will respect the aggressive behavior of the new general manager.
