The Padres need Juan Soto

The Padres need a big boost to their offense if they're going to compete with the best teams in the National League this year.

The San Diego Padres have won four of their last six games, and both of their last two series. One before the break (against the Diamondbacks) and one after (against the Mets). That’s great!

They’re doing it with the old formula, the one that was working early in the season: pitching and defense. And when it fell apart on them on ESPN last night, it was because the defense once again got sloppy (Ruiz missing a catch at the wall, Machado air-mailing a ball that Hosmer didn’t even bother to try and catch, etc.).

The Padres have put themselves in this position, with all of the winning up to this point, where we are supposed to expect them to be good. The problem with that is the Padres are working with the thinnest margin of error, because any run they give up could be the one that loses them the game.

Let’s look at this another way.

First of all, look at the Padres’ record against teams that are above .500 and then compare that to the Dodgers. The Padres might actually be built to win in the playoffs, when pitching matters more, but they need to start beating the good teams now if they’re going to make it that far.

Anyway, that’s not why I wanted to pull this up. I’m going to do some quick math so that you see how the Padres are not like the other teams shown here.

Runs per game:

• LAD: 5.18

• NYM: 4.65

• MIL: 4.60

• ATL: 4.76

• STL: 4.58

• SD: 4.31

Oh, and the Brewers are the only team on this list that allow more runs per game than the Padres. Again, thinnest of margins. This is why things fell apart the moment the defense started to get sloppy a few weeks ago. The Padres have to be perfect just to maintain this position.

If the Padres make a small move, a catcher and a reliever or something to that affect, it’s not going to be enough. It’s going to get them a little bit better at scoring and close the gap a little bit, but they’ll still probably be behind most of these teams in runs scored per game and runs allowed per game. Unless Tatis comes back and looks like a guy that didn’t just take a year off from playing baseball, which seems unlikely.

If the Padres, and I’m specifically talking to the front office and Padres Chairman Peter Seidler, are as desperate to get into the World Series conversation as much as they say that are…Juan Soto is the way.

Every report out there right now has the Padres as the front-runners to land Soto at this trade deadline, for two reasons. One, they have enough prospect capital to meet the Nationals’ demands. Two, they have the desperation to give up what is necessary to land Juan Soto.

I know the record says the Padres are close, but they’re also maybe the 6th best team in the National League this season. I haven’t even factored in the American League where the Yankees loom large. Nothing gets them up to that level of competition faster than adding Juan Soto to the Padres.