Things Just Took a MAJOR TURN for the Padres…

Things Just Took a MAJOR TURN for the Padres…

Things just took a major turn for the Padres’s coaching staff as our hitting coach has departed. Who could fill his hole? What does this mean for the team? Let’s talk about it. Hi, welcome back to another episode of Padres’s Digest with your host Andrew. Today we have some breaking news. Uh, I saw a report yesterday about V-Rod maybe wanting to leave the Padres’s, and today he has officially left the Padres’s. If you don’t know who V-Rod is, Victor Rodriguez, he has been our hitting coach for the past two years. And a lot of people are blaming him for the result of this season. Not like completely entirely, but one of the factors that led to our eventual offensive downside we had the entire year. And I do have some thoughts and opinions on that. Before we get too deep into it though, please subscribe as always. Anyways, V-Rod gone. He is going to the Astros. He did have a year left on his contract, but the Astros were like, “You know what? We’ll take him.” So, he’s gone now. And not only do we need a new manager, we also need a new hitting coach. But to be honest, if both coaching positions were going to leave, sorry, a plane just flew directly over my house. Sorry. But if both uh coaching positions on this team were to leave this off season, I think the two biggest ones we should have addressed were manager and hitting coach. And now we’re going to be forced to. So I don’t think this is necessarily a horrible thing, but I do I’m excited. Let’s put it that way. I’m excited to see what we can get out of it. I still think a manager decision should be coming relatively soon now that we don’t have a hitting coach, but I think b that I think something fresh at this point, honestly, might be the best thing for us. I know we talked about consistency being huge. But if we’re going to change things up, we should at least try to go all in. You know what I mean? Still like Ruben Ya. I saw some comments about how people dislike Ruben Neba, how he has been bad for us. But I don’t know how you could see pitching in the past two years and been like, “That’s bad.” I mean, there was bad cases, don’t get me wrong. Like, yeah, Dylan Cece was bad last season or this season. I still don’t know what to say to be honest. Do I say this season or do I say last season? I don’t know. Uh, but I think the important coaching holes are going to be filled this off seasonason. That’s exactly what we needed. So, let’s look at some articles and stuff. As we saw, V-Rod leaving the Padres’s to become the Astros hitting coach. Oops, wrong button. So, source, the Astros are targeting Victor Rodriguez, and they already left. Obviously, he served the last two seasons as the Padres’s hitting coach and was also assistant hitting coach for the Red Sox in 2013 and through 17 and Guardians from 2018 to 2013. So, he’s been around the block, don’t get me wrong. He was he had been around the block and now he’s going to a completely new AL team. And to be honest, I saw a lot of I don’t have him, but I saw a lot of Astros fans low-key excited for this. So, I don’t think I have this on here, but uh we’ll come back to it. But V-Rod has a can I call it a special ability. The first year he coaches a team, all their offensive metrics usually go up, right? But then the second year, all those offensive numbers kind of skew and either go down or go way up or go way down. Like he has a very consistent uh I guess way of coaching, right? Like like the Red Sox in uh they had a bad year and then they fired him and then 2018, you know, they won the World Series. Guardians, for example, I mean, I saw it too. I don’t have the exact data off the top of my head. Like I said, I saw this somewhere. I don’t know if it was Twitter. I don’t know if it was Reddit. I saw it somewhere and I don’t know where it was anymore. So, my bad. But I I I promise you have to trust me that I did in fact read that. But just food for thought. Astros are a pretty good organization. So, clearly they must uh see something. Uh oh, maybe it was this one. Okay, maybe I think of something else. Whatever. Also, every first tier he has with a team, the squad does really well. 2013 Red Sox World Series champions. 2018 Guardians, top 10 in nearly all hitting categories. 2024 Padres’s top 10 in average, slug, ops, and homers. We shouldn’t be surprised if Astros have a surge and Padres’s better go after David Popkins, although I’m sure it’s unlikely. Andrew, who is David Popkins? So, you saw my intro, right? There’s Victor Rodriguez with uh Luis Arise. And then the other picture you see a guy in a Blue Jays uniform talking to is I think that’s Dalton Var show right there. Who’s that? That is Blue Jays hitting coach David Hopkins. And he has been a hot topic in the Padres’s Reddits Padres’s Twitter spheres. And you probably don’t know a lot about him besides the fact that he’s on the Blue Jays and they almost won the World Series. Uh unfortunately they lost to a team that does not matter and we will not speak of. But David Popkins is someone I feel like you guys should get familiar with. Oops, wrong button. Uh, so here’s some more numbers real quick before we get too deep into David Popkins talk. 2024 2024 Padres’s first in average, seventh in slug, 10th in home runs. 2025 Blue Jays, first in average, seventh in slug, 11th in home runs. So something very similar to how what we had last year are the Blue Jays this year. So very similar teams, right? Padres’s have had the players already for the most part to do what they did in 2024. So getting a big expensive bat without guys like Machado, Tatis, Mel Sheets, and Lauriano doing their part is not going to fix anything. Players like Arise shouldn’t be seen as a scapegoat when he had a concussion and the rest of the team fell off to 22nd in slug and 28th in home runs. It’s a team sport for a reason. So, yeah, I do honestly agree with V-Rod being a little bit of an of a scapegoat for the Padres’s. Like, I don’t think it’s entirely his fault. I feel like I’ve said this on a comment section somewhere, but I don’t think V-Rod is a bad hitting coach. I just don’t think his philosophy really worked for what we needed from this team. Yes, the numbers improved initially in 2024. And again, that fits the pattern of what he is, but I don’t know if he’s over tweaking. I don’t know if he changes something in his second year, like, hey, now that we’ve done this, let’s try this. I don’t personally know. But I don’t think he’s a bad coach. I just don’t think what from what we need in the future, which is more slug, more power, I don’t think he was the guy to really get us there. which is why I think him leaving is not a bad thing. I’m excited to see who we can get out of it. And let’s quickly read the small article from Kevin AC about this. Whoever the Padre’s next manager is will have a new hitting coach in 2026. Victor Rodriguez and the Astros are finalizing a deal. Blah blah blah. We already know that. Uh that means the Padres’s fourth manager in seven seasons will have a hand in hiring the team’s 10th hitting coach since 2015. In 2024, Rodriguez’s first season. The Padres’s led the majors in batting average for the first time in franchise history. They finished seventh last season, which is still good, which was their second highest ranking in the past 22 years. However, their home run and uh run production fell precipitous pre we’ll get there. Precipitously, that’s exactly what I said. In 2025, they ranked 28th in MLB in home runs and 18th in runs. precipitously. Yell at me. You know how you know you know the deal. Just yell at me. Uh anyways, so who’s David Popkins? He is a Blue Jays hitting coach like we’ve established. Why does everyone want him? A the Blue Jays just made the World Series and they look good, right? They’re a similar team to us, which is why I’m a firm believer in Pod Jay’s being a thing. But what’s the second reason? Honestly, he’s from San Diego. I mean, look at Ruben Yaba, right? He’s from San Diego. Popkins is from San Diego. Why not, right? 100% that’s a huge reason why is because he’s from San Diego. And a lot of fans think they have a possibility of luring him back home to San Diego, which honestly that’d be great, right? He went to high school in San Diego. I forgot which one it was exactly. I can tell you right now. Hold on. He went to St. Augustine High School in San Diego, California. I don’t live in San Diego, so I don’t know if that’s a big deal or not, but I’m sure Christian would because he lives around there, I’m assuming. Uh, but yeah, he was a coach from the Twins, coach of the Blue Jays. And I also saw somewhere that uh for Louisa Rise fans out there, David Popkins is a big reason why Louisa Rise hit 355 that one season and won the batting title for people like David Popkins. So, David Hopkins has a special philosophy, and I saw this from an article early this year, February 2025. This is a quote. My philosophy is built off of creativity. Popkins said, “We’re trying to become the most creative lineup at scoring runs in baseball. We do that by practicing all of the different situations and clubs that we’re going and and clubs that we’re going to need in the game.” Clubs. There’s the first metaphor will mix in. Some situations call for a pitching wedge or a seveniron, chasing contact in certain counts or trying to shoot a line drive the other way. Everyone knows it’s all about letting the driver rip. I don’t play enough golf to understand what that means, but I think I get the idea. Popkins wants his hitters to set themselves up for those moments and takes their and take their chances. There needs to be some risk involved. When you earn those counts, you have the right to get something off. And if you chase a pitch, that’s okay. Popkins said, “We have to give them forgiveness and tell them where where they can fail. If you try to do everything, you’re not going to do anything. When you get in those spots, they probably felt that they didn’t want to chase, didn’t want to make a mistake. If you’re afraid to make a mistake, you lose that attack. If you’re not attacking, you’re getting attacked in this game. It’s about reminding guys that they are dangerous.” So, that’s interesting. And I feel like the best way I could describe it to you guys is through Tatis Jr., right? Tatis has always been a high slug, high strikeout kind of guy. And then this season, he kind of turned into an onbase machine. He could steal bases if Luis Arise wasn’t such a ugly ball hitter, but he could have stole a lot of bases this year, but he got on base. He scored a lot of runs. Tatis this year was completely different than what we’ve ever seen him do before, but it was the cost of his slug and the cost of his home run production. He did hit he did hit a good amount of home runs, right? But in 2020, was it one or two? He had like no 2021, he had like what 40ome home runs. So it was very different from what we’re used to seeing. So in Victor Rodriguez’s form of coaching, he was all about protecting the plate, making good contact, letting the ball next man up mentality like we talked about, right? Someone gets on base, next man up, scores him. Next man up tries to score him. I feel like David Hopkins is more of like, “Hey, I want you to swing at those pitches that you might think, I want you to attack the ball. I want you to make those swings. If you strike out, that’s okay. Take a step. Take a step back, realize why you struck out, and then try it again and improve and improve and improve and keep growing and growing and growing.” And I think that’s honestly a really good idea for someone say like Tatis Jr. I’m not saying that works for every single player on our team, but specifically for Tatis Jr. I would like to see him attack more. Kind of like how Louisa Rise was a little too passive last year and then he started getting better once she started attacking more uh in a very oversimplified way. I think this is something that could really benefit the Padres’s for next season if there’s somehow some way we can get him. Uh but to kind of uh I guess burst a little bit of a bubble. Padre’s guy here. This is from the Padres’s Reddit. He’s a Padres’s fan and a Blue Jays fan. Pod J’s guy here respectfully. Popkins is going nowhere. I think most of the Blue Jays coaches and players will want to run it back after the series. And yes, this is very much wishful thinking. Can we lure him over here? I don’t know. But to be honest, I’ve never been to Toronto, but I feel like San Diego is a much better place than Toronto in my humble humble opinion. Uh, but yeah, I can show you some quick numbers real quick. But here is how things stacked up at the end of the season. I know it says the 27th, which I don’t think was the last game, but close enough, right? So, you can see San Diego in hard hit percentage, they were 37.6%, which means they only hit the ball hard 37% of the time. They were almost last in the league. Toronto was 12th in the league. So, big difference, right? Team barrel percentage, how much they barreled it up. 8.1% for Toronto in 16, 27th uh in the league with 7.3 for San Diego. Home runs, you can see the numbers. I won’t read all of them. Home runs, a big gap. OPS not as a huge as a gap but still a pretty relative be big gap but basically the point being is that San Diego’s on the bottom of most of these and Toronto is somewhere middle or higher than others. That was a weird way to say it but yeah you know what I mean right and then just final one right in 2024 we’re going by OPS which is on base plus slugging which I know is not the entire picture of a hitting team uh overall but it’s a good it’s a good benchmark right on base plus slugging. So Padres’s in 2024 sixth place with 744, Blue Jays with 702 and then they hired David Popkins and then now they’re third at 760 and Padres’s dropped down with V-Rod at 711. So big big differences again. David Popkins huge huge uh if maybe I would say there’s probably like a 20% chance that’s going to happen. Maybe if uh we can lure him over here. But I don’t think the Blue Jays are really keen on letting someone go. So yeah, but I the more important part obviously is that V-Rod is gone. Maybe Yadier Molina Albert Poles wants to be a hitting coach. I don’t know. I wouldn’t love that to be honest. I think we can probably do better. Uh but yeah, let me know what you guys think. How do you feel about V-Rod leaving? Are you sad? Are you happy? Do you think he’s the reason why we lost last year? Or do you think it’s a whole bunch of factors? How do you feel about David Popkins? You like him? Or do you think it’s wishful thinking? Andrew, why would you bring that up if it’s not going to happen? I don’t know. Why not? Why not? Anyways, thank you guys so much for watching. Have a fantastic rest of your day. Please subscribe as always and go Padres’s. Goodbye.

Today, Andrew McFarland talks about our hitting coach leaving for the Astros and how that affects our offense, while also mentioning a possible replacement that would be a perfect fit for us…

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