his on-field performance into practically equal parts good and bad.<\/a><\/p>\nHe has been one of the Padres\u2019 top offensive performers for portions of all three seasons with the team and an absolute albatross in the lineup for portions of all three seasons.<\/p>\n
He still seeks a full campaign with the Padres as good as any of the seven he turned in over the eight-year period between 2015 and \u201822.<\/p>\n
He has played just 408 of the Padres\u2019 492 games since the start of 2023 and is batting .270 with a .733 OPS in brown and gold.<\/p>\n
He has been in San Diego a little more than a third as long as he was in Boston. But it feels like a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking about that the other day,\u201d Bogaerts said on Tuesday. \u201cNot the same amount of time, right? But maybe dealing with all my headaches, it feels like a lot longer \u2014 just the ups and downs, having the good and the bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just how recently Bogaerts arrived is revealed in his utter amazement that Petco Park was not always full.<\/p>\n
In his mind, there is one great similarity between playing for the Red Sox and Padres:<\/p>\n
Expectations.<\/p>\n
For reference, one of those two teams played its first game in its home ballpark five days after the Titanic sank and has won nine World Series titles, including four of the past 22. The other team began playing in 1969 and has yet to win a championship.<\/p>\n
Anyone who followed the Padres before the current decade remembers dozens of years between playoff appearances and crowds of 14,224 on a Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo sellout crowds?\u201d Bogaerts said incredulously when regaled with a brief history of San Diego as a sports town, the Padres\u2019 struggles on the field and in the shadow of the Chargers.<\/p>\n
But Bogaerts began noticing the Padres in 2020, when he would catch their games on television after his ended on the East Coast, and he was intrigued by the \u201cSlam Diego\u201d vibe and a young shortstop who played like his dreadlocks were on fire. That year ended with the first of what has become four postseason appearances in six years, an unprecedented run in Padres history.<\/p>\n
Bogaerts arrived in San Diego shortly after the Padres\u2019 run to the 2022 NLCS. His first Padres team included Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. Of the 246 games at Petco Park since Bogaerts joined the team, 193 have drawn at least 40,000 fans and none has had an announced attendance of lower than 29,581.<\/p>\n
So, to him, the current version of the Padres and the fans that love them are all there have ever been.<\/p>\n
And his take on the groups that follow the two teams might be shocking to those steeped in old tropes about the laid-back San Diego fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think (San Diego) is just \u2014 the one thing that I like, and it can be a little frustrating, because I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to play on two teams where we won,\u201d he said. \u201cComing here, this is all that they want. I say \u2018they\u2019 because I wasn\u2019t here before. Coming here, you notice right away \u2014 I don\u2019t know if every little thing gets a little overblown, maybe. But why? It\u2019s because they just want it so bad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Boston, it\u2019s like they\u2019re just used to playoffs all the time. \u2026 You\u2019ve won four times \u2014 2004, \u201807, \u201813, \u201818. And here, they have never won. So you can see how much they want it. It\u2019s just a lot of frustration for the fans. It\u2019s different. Boston fans are more intense. But they still understand. I\u2019m not bashing either fan base. It\u2019s just a difference. And why is there a difference? Because in Boston, they have won, and here they have never won.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can feel here more like \u2014 desperate is a hard word to say \u2014 but just like a lot of years of frustration coming out. They want it bad. In Boston, they might want it, yeah. But here they want it bad, because they never had it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bogaerts believes his legacy is tied up in the expectations.<\/p>\n
He knows he has disappointed. He is supposed to be part of the appeal of the Padres, whose business strategy revolves around not only a beautiful ballpark and winning but in having big-name, exciting players. He has heard the boos and seen the criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something to come to see,\u201d Bogaerts said of the Padres\u2019 star power. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why, when you don\u2019t perform, that\u2019s what you get.\u201d<\/p>\n
During spring training, almost as a throwaway line while talking about Bogaerts\u2019 place in the lineup, Padres manager Craig Stammen said: \u201cXander is on track to be in the Hall of Fame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where he laid a base for that in Boston, Bogaerts would need to finish his career like few players in their mid- and late 30s do in order to make it to Cooperstown.<\/p>\n
He barely entertained the idea when Stammen\u2019s comment was brought to his attention. Asked what he thought it would take, he shrugged and quickly rattled off some numbers.<\/p>\n
And then he said: \u201cAnd a championship here.\u201d<\/p>\n
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