For the Friars to pull off a 'bold move' at end of this month, they may need to first prove themselves worthy.
As they have been around this time in recent years, the San Diego Padres currently find themselves second in the National League West with a 54-45 record behind their biggest rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And A.J. Preller, the team's general manager, is confident that the team has plenty of prime play left in their 2025 season as the second half gets underway, especially after the team's strong showing at the All-Star Game with MVP-level players such as Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado.
But the team still has a starting pitcher kink to work out in the 10 days that remain until the MLB trade deadline, and according to USA Today's Gabe Lacques, the Padres need to first prove that they are worthy of a bold move on July 31, they need to prove that they are worthy buyers as they continue to push towards the postseason as they near the 100-game mark in 2025.
"To put it bluntly, the Padres need to start kicking some teams' butts," Lacques wrote, and also pointed out that Padres are 20-32 against teams that are above .500 this year, and a majority of their upcoming contests, 29 of the next 35 to be exact, will be against teams holding winning records.
San Diego pitcher Dylan Cease, who struggled in the first half of the season with a 4.88 earned run average, is well aware of the stretch the team is about to go on and knows how much it will affect the team's season in the long run.
"This is the stretch," Cease told Lacques. "Obviously all the games are important, but this is really probably going to define who we are going to be at the end of the day.
The Padres currently sit 3.5 games behind their foes from Los Angeles in the NL West, who are going through a rough patch of their own after losing 8 of their last 10 ball games.
Category: Baseball
