Padres Big Decisions. Can Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr win a championship? Sign Pete Alonso?

Padres Big Decisions. Can Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr win a championship? Sign Pete Alonso?

John, are you ready to talk baseball? Yeah, absolutely. And and I see on the top of the list, we’re going to talk about Padres’s. Maybe a little bit of a post-mortem here, Lee. I think the correct word is autopsy. Let’s talk Padre baseball. John, you’re the one that’s back in the castle. You’re the one that’s back in master control. I am going to give you questions and you’re going to tell everybody watching on this live stream today what you’re going to recommend to the Sidler family going forward based on what we have just seen. It’s your decision. John Riley, here we go. Here we go. I could spend the money. What are you going to tell Sidlers? What are you going to tell Eric Groupner? And I asked that question because under AJ Peller, we’ve had 11 years. The last five years have been just fascinating. Petco Park has become a destination point. They have spent enormous amounts of money. They’ve drawn record crowds to raise the ticket prices 57%. It has really become the place to spend your summer nights. Potter baseball has really become special in the community. Now, the burning question. They have never won an American a National League West Division title under Prella’s blueprint. They have never won a National League championship series. This franchise after more than a decade of doing it his way has never gotten to a World Series. So at NE, as they began their exit meetings today, the baseball executives and ownership, I’m going to ask you, what are you doing with the guys with the big money contracts who walk out November 1st as free agents? Do you want to keep Dylan Cease at 13.7? How much you willing to give Michael King coming off his health issues? You’re saying goodbye to Robert Suarez, 12.2 million. What kind of decision you’re making with Luis Sarise at 14 million? And there’s a whole bunch of other guys, but these are the cornerstone marquee anchors to what has been the pitching staff and to a degree the everyday lineup. So John Riley, the podium is yours. What are you doing with the guys who are going to become free agents November one. What do you recommend? Well, I I think a lot of those guys there a lot of them are pitchers, right? I mean, you talked about King and Cease and Suarez. We know generally speaking that we need more slug. I mean, the pitching is is good. You know, it’s not fantastic. We don’t have a Sai Young candidate on the but they’re solid pitchers. So, I’m willing to sacrifice a little pitching starters or bullpen. If I can get a big hitting first spaceman like a Pete Alonzo or something like that. Okay, here’s the burning question. If if you let these guys walk, you’re going to have approximately 65 million in budget space. But if you want to get stars, you’re going to eat up that 65 million really, really quick. You think you can convince guys to come here at an affordable price? How are you going to spend that 65 million? You just mentioned the polar bear and you’re going to have to go get pitching because we don’t know whether Darvish is ever going to be Darbish again. And there’s no guarantee Joe Musgrove comes back to be what Joe Musgrove was. So you got two question marks there. And if you’re want letting Ceasew walk and Suarez walk and you haven’t given me an answer on Michael King. So, how you going to spend 65 million when you’re going to have more holes to fill? Yeah. I mean, clearly it’s it’s, you know, it’s a it’s a game of like uh like whack-a-ole. You know, you’re trying to, you know, contain everything, but there’s always going to be some kind of a hole somewhere. I mean, we don’t have the resources like the Dodgers to have all of our bases covered, have like a 40man roster that’s old, uber deep. I mean, that’s not going to be the case. We’re going to have to take some gamles. We need to find more surprise guys like Gavin Sheets, like like Jerks and Proar when we got him on that one-year deal. So, I I mean, of the pitchers, I’m inclined to let Suarez go. I’m inclined to let Cease go. I’d like to keep Michael King if possible, depending how the numbers work out. I think there’s some interesting opportunities, you know, to either have Miller replace Suarez as a closer or make Miller a starter, you know, and then you have someone like as a closer or Moraone could be a starter. I mean, so you’ve got a lot of flexibility. You just need to make some strategic decisions now so the team can be prepared going into spring training and guys can get ramped up appropriately. Are you telling me you’re going to be walking down aisle five at Dollar General with $65 million in your pocket and that’s how you’re going to try to replenish the roster in addition to maybe going to get the polar bear? Yeah. Well, here we go. I mean, it is limited resources. Obviously, if you can find a upand cominging young guy, I don’t know, like let’s just say hypothetically, why not Ryan O’Harn? I mean, Ryan O’Harn is a first baseman full-time. That’s not a bad choice. You know, that that could work. I mean, Polar Bear is going to want 30 mil for, you know, 10 years, and we’re already stuck with three or four or five of those deals. So, I think I think you can find some guys to make this fit. Now, the Darvish question is interesting because there’s been some speculation that he would retire and walk away from the remaining years on his contract. I think that was wishful thinking of Padre fans on X, but if that happened, boy, that could really open up some space. But it is nice though that yeah, Hosmer’s coming off the board and all those players that we’ve just named. I think Arise, you let Arise walk as well. Um, so they’re going to need to get creative here. There’s obviously not a lot of young talent that they can bring up at least from a hitting perspective in the minor leagues. So I don’t know, O’Harn might be a guy to bring back or someone that’s similar that’s out there on the market. All right. What’s your reaction now? What are you going to sit there and tell ownership as these exit meetings are beginning about Machado? Machado who again fails in postseason. Machado who had two miserable months in August and September where he hit 206. And Machado with all that money is hitting 211 his entire career in postseason. And then in the exit interviews with the media at Petco Park, he lectured the media saying, “You must ask better question than you’ve asked about his failures in postseason.” I get the sense the baseball community fans are really up in arms and they’re tired of Machado’s act. Is that a correct read? And what are you telling them about Machado? Because he’s the one that made the comment to me, “Look at the back of my baseball card.” Well, the back of his baseball card has a hell of a lot of postseason failures. Go ahead, John. Okay, there’s a that’s a mixed bag you just presented there. Okay, first of all, um there is a ton of hate on Manny Machado right now. People are saying they need to get rid of him. Your old colleague Scott Kaplan was saying that Manny Machado and Tatis are not championship players. If someone would take over the contract for Machado, we should let him go. But that’s not going to happen. I mean, that’s just not going to happen. So, Machado’s our guy. I mean, like him or not, he’s still an allstar, great player. We could talk about the attitude, but I’ll tell you what, that question that he was asked in the um in the locker room after the the third game when they lost and they said, you know, how did you assess the season? And Manny just sort of looked back at the reporter and smiled and he said, well, how do you think I’m going to assess it? We just lost. You know, I don’t think that was a a un unprofessional comment at all. I mean, the the loss was still raw. I mean, the dude was undressing in the locker room after this defeat. It hurts. So, I don’t know. I still believe Machado is a good dude. I mean, he still can be a leader. He still can perform, but we need more leaders. Machado cannot be the only guy, you know. So, you know, you need additional. Now, when Musgrove comes back, that’s another major leadership dude that you can really count on. But I don’t I think we we have to accept the fact you’re not going to trade Mus uh uh Machado. So, you’ve got to figure a way to embrace him, to love him, and make it work in San Diego. You want to cuddle a guy who talks down to the media, and you want to cuddle a guy with a career 211 postseason batting average. I don’t know that I can. What are you gonna do? You You want to banish him? You want to bench him? I mean, you you can’t trade him unless you’re going to eat like, you know, th you know, probably a hundred million dollars at least on that contract. He’s not going anywhere. I mean, that’s not going to happen. So, you’ve got to find a way to make it work. I again, I don’t think, okay, you may have had a bad experience with him early on when he was still young in 2019. Dude’s different now. He’s grown up. Okay. Yeah, he needs to hit better. No doubt about it. He did have the one hit that won the game. Game two for the Cubs. So, I don’t know. Machado isn’t I mean, there’s we can we can critique Machado, the good, the bad, the the pros, the cons, but in the end, Machado is not the problem. He he’s not the core problem here. The problem is is that there are not enough other guys that can hit. Okay, let’s go to Tatis in right field. I asked the question at mid-season when he went through a really bad swoon. Of course, I thought he was hurt, but I asked the relevant question, I really wonder if he’s just a physical talent and not really a student of the game because here is Tatis with another miserable postseason. 14 unbelievable swings and misses. He was out of the batter’s box before the people could sit in their seats in each one of his abs along the way. and he’s got all these problems off the field. An arbitrator has just ordered him to pay $3.4 million back to a company that took a loan out when he was a teenager after signing with the White Socks and coming to the Padres’s. There’s just a lot of junk swirling around him. But I look at him and I look at just the total lack of consistency and discipline over a guy that’s making 30 million supposed to be a superstar. I’m I’m not sure if I’m more disappointed in Machado or more disappointed in Tatis. Do you think he’s a student of the game? Well, you think he would be. I mean, his father was a major league ball player. Played for what, 10 years, and you know, obviously had that two grand slam record we always talk about. M Tatis is a mystery right now. I mean, there’s obviously a lot going on in his world. Now, you say he had another miserable playoff season. I I I don’t roll the clock back. He’s had some really good playoff moments for the Padres’s. Uh, this year he sucked. This year he looked completely confused. I said in our last episode that I wasn’t sure what he was trying to accomplish as the leadoff hitter. Is he a Is he like a hit the other way, Petco Park, go with the pitch? Is he Ricky Henderson trying to get walks just get on base? Is he trying to be the power guy like Otani at the top of the order? Who is he? I think he’s confused on who he is. So, I think mentally it’s an issue and yeah, he’s he signed that deal for, you know, to get paid up front. That was a foolish deal. And I still can’t understand if the dude need money. I mean, his dad made money. Why is he taking out a loan on his future earnings when he really, you know, he has family resources if he’s so desperate for certain things? So, Tatis is a mystery to me. So, that’s where we are. we get to the finish line as the organizational meetings began today. Bad taste in my mouth. They have scored five runs in the last 51 innings of postseason play. They’re no closer to being a World Series team. In fact, as we sit here on the Monday in October, John, I now get the sense they’re farther away because of this roster situation and because of the continued postseason failures of their two stars. They’re farther away from being a World Series team and we would have thought 11 years into the Thriller blueprint, we would have been there. Agree or disagree? Well, they are farther away. I mean, 22 they made the NLCS, 24 the NLDS, and last year the wild card. So, they’re slipping backwards there. No doubt about it. You know, there’s a lot of big problems on this team that they’ve got to address. But in the end, you’re not going to be able to trade Manny. who might be able to trade Tatis maybe, but again, they need to find a way to build around those guys, not jettison those guys. They got to find a way to make it work. And you know, this kind of goes back to the criticism we’ve had of AJ Prowler early on is that he put himself in a box. He painted himself into a corner with these long-term deals, Xander, Darvish, you know, the whole thing. So there they have little wiggle room here. But if you can deal Machado or Tatis and get a boatload back and not have to, you know, write a check for, you know, nine nine figures, then that would be great. But I just don’t see that being realistic. Okay, that’s all things Padres’s. The fans forum chat box is officially open for Frier fans. Are you’re still faithful? Feel free to jump on board. I just tend to think this franchise right now is painted into a corner. credit card bills have come due. They’re stuck with big long-term contracts and now there’s holes in the pitching staff. Padre fans, fans form, chat box is open. John, we go from that topic

Lee Hacksaw Hamilton discusses the San Diego Padres possible moves in the offseason.

Livestreamed Monday, October 6, 2025.

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