Dodgers watching Padres downfall continue as 2024 All-Star ditches SD for Braves

The offseason keeps getting worse for the San Diego Padres – and better for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Three of the top four teams in the National League West have been busy adding to their rosters over the past three months. The Dodgers signed Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and Tanner Scott; the San Francisco Giants signed Willy Adames and Justin Verlander; and the Arizona Diamondbacks landed Josh Naylor and Corbin Burnes. The Padres, meanwhile, have done ... nothing (unless you count signing the 38-year-old ghost of Martin Maldonado).

In all seriousness, the Padres have yet to guarantee a new contract to a Major League player for the upcoming season, aside from a $900,000 agreement to keep utility man Tyler Wade in his last year of arbitration eligibility. Their current Opening Day payroll projection sits at $196.9 million, and their roster looks far from complete.

And now, to add insult to injury, one of the Padres' top performers from 2024 has left them for another NL contender. Outfielder Jurickson Profar agreed to a three-year, $42 million contract with the Atlanta Braves, spurning the team with which he enjoyed a late-career resurgence and earned his first Major League All-Star appearance in 2024.

Dodgers watching Padres downfall continue as 2024 All-Star Jurickson Profar ditches SD for Braves

The Padres now have a hole to fill in left field, and Profar's 24 home runs, 85 RBI, 94 runs and an .839 OPS from 2024 won't be easy for them to replace. Their internal options include Tyler Wade and Tirso Ornelas, but the rate at which the other NL West teams have aggressively gone about improving their rosters this offseason would suggest that San Diego should probably aim a little higher in 2025.

Unfortunately for the Padres, this late in the offseason, there aren't too many options remaining on the free agent market. Add in the fact that they desperately need some rotation depth after losing Joe Musgrove to Tommy John surgery and another catcher to pair with Luis Campusano – no, Maldonado doesn't count – and their outlook for what little is left of the offseason is looking pretty bleak.

As for the Dodgers, they won't have to do much – if anything – else to emerge as the unofficial "winners" of the MLB offseason. The Padres being the losers is just the cherry on top.

More Dodgers content from Dodgers Way