Dodgers: Sizing Up the NL West Competition- Padres

This article is part three of a five-part series in which I will break down the Dodgers’ competition in the NL West for the 2018 season. The articles will feature the teams’ offseason additions and subtractions, a pitcher to watch out for, a batter to watch out for, and a season expectation.

The San Diego Padres are slowly but surely on the mend. Their farm system is in the top-four in all of baseball and they are also making subtle improvements to a major league roster that has been atrocious over the past 17 or so seasons. Having not finished higher than third in the division all but three times in 17 years, the Padres can really only go up and it is up they are going.

This offseason was one of the biggest in San Diego’s recent memory. They signed one of the biggest names in free agents and also made a couple of smaller signing and a trades that further rounded out their roster.

While they did not go from zero to hero in just a couple months, the team did a relatively nice job of preparing for seasons in a few years rather than right now. So, while the team is far from ready to compete, the Padres give us a lot to talk about.