There are four power hitters on the Padres roster with the ability to hit more than 20 home runs per season. Each of them will surpass that number this year and might even exceed 25. With a team that sits second to last in MLB with 127 home runs, it doesn’t seem to make sense that there are four players on the roster who should be able to total 100 home runs or more just between them.
Not surprisingly, the New York Yankees lead all of baseball with 243 homers and there are six hitters that have 20
home runs or more so far this season (ironically, ex-Padre Trent Grisham is second with 30 home runs). The Seattle Mariners are a distant second at 210 homers. They have four players with 20 or more homers. The big difference is that there are one or two hitters that exceed 30 home runs for each of those teams.
Can the San Diego Padres hope to increase their slugging without a greater than 40 home run hitter on the roster?
The reality is that they don’t need to compete with the Yankees, the Mariners or even the LA Dodgers to improve in the slugging numbers. They just need their best hitters to perform a little better and add a few from lower in the lineup.
Fernando Tatis Jr. is not really having a down year. It is just that the expectations from him and the fans was for something much more impressive than what we have seen. He said it in the Spring, when he is right, there is no one better on the baseball field. That can come across as extreme ego unless you back it up. His problem is that he hasn’t backed it up, but Tatis Jr. is not having a bad season.
Tatis is hitting .262 with a .797 OPS. He has 27 doubles, two triples and 20 home runs with 62 RBI. He also has 28 stolen bases, far ahead of any other active Padre. That gives him membership in the 20/20 club (20 home runs/20 stolen bases) for the third time in his six years as an active player.
A closer look at his numbers shows that he is striking out less and walking more than he has in the past. His chase rate is down as well as his swing and miss. The issue when it comes to his power is that his launch angle is decreased (10.1 degrees) and ranks the lowest of the Padres top power hitters. Home runs come from a combination of barreling the ball hard and lofting it over the fence. He barrels the ball hard, but not enough loft.
Manny Machado leads the team in most offensive categories, as he usually does. He might not make his 30 home runs this season as his August was sub-par for him. Machado had one homer and eight RBI in the entire month of August. He has two home runs and five RBI in September through seven games. He has had longer cold stretches this season than what we normally see from him, but his 84 RBI still lead the team.
Machado has the max exit velocity on the team at 114.8 mph. His launch angle is second to Gavin Sheets at 14.1 degrees. He is the model of consistency with his swing and his numbers vary little from season to season. His swing and miss as well as his K-rate fluctuate minimally. The biggest issue with Machado is that his defense has declined the last two seasons, but that is to be expected when a player is 33 years old. He still hits the ball with authority.
Gavin Sheets has been the surprise of the season for the Padres. Signed as a minor league free agent before spring training, Sheets has brought his career back to life with his performance this year. Playing in 127 games so far, Sheets has a .269 average and .797 OPS with 25 doubles, a triple and 19 home runs. He has the second most RBI with 64. The stat that stands out for Sheets is that he is vastly improved against lefties. For his career, before 2025, Sheets hit .168/.216/.242 versus lefties. With the Padres, Sheets has a .280/.317/.415 line in 126 plate appearances. He is hitting .265 versus righties this season. Only two of his homers are against lefties so his power is almost all against the righty pitchers.
Although he chases more than both Tatis and Machado, his swing and miss is less than either of them. His K-rate and walk rate are both acceptable at 19.7% and 7.9% respectively. Sheets has a max exit velocity of 112.8 mph and a launch angle of 14.6 degrees. The exact same exit velocity as Tatis, but with a much higher launch angle.
Sheets had an incredible August, hitting .412/.464/.745 with a 1.209 OPS. He had eight doubles, three homers and eight RBI in 51 at-bats.
Ramón Laureano is the biggest surprise of the trade deadline. Possibly for any team. Since being acquired, Laureano has skyrocketed to the top of the stats for the Padres. For the month of August, Laureano lead the team in RBI (23), home runs (7), and hits (32). His average for the month (.305) was second to Sheets as well as his slugging at .581.
In 117 games for 2025, Laureano has a .297/.359/.544 line and .903 OPS. His 23 homers are tied for most on the team with Machado, with all but eight of those coming with the Orioles. His 71 RBI come second to Machado with 25 as a Padre.
He hasn’t slowed down in September. For the seven games played, he has a .346 average and .952 OPS with two doubles, a home run and two RBI. His max exit velocity is 112.7, almost identical to Sheets and Tatis, with a 13.4 launch angle.
We could dream on what the Padres could have been during the entire season if Laureano had been a Padre instead of in Baltimore. But the reality is that the team needs both Machado and Tatis to fulfill their expectations with Sheets and Laureano surging at the right time. If all four of them can perform at the level they are capable, then the last 17 games of the season could provide the momentum to launch into a successful postseason.
