San Diego’s deadline decisions finally pay off big with NLDS win
SAN DIEGO — The players came together to form a haphazard circle in the middle of the San Diego Padres‘ clubhouse, at times bouncing to hip-hop and spraying champagne in unison. Peter Seidler, the owner, stood off to the side, close enough to witness the madness but far enough to be spared from it. Ten years ago, Seidler, the grandson of celebrated Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, purchased this franchise with outsized expectations: the goal of the Padres taking over both their city and their division.
Saturday night — punctuated by the 5-3 victory that eliminated the mighty Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Division Series — represented the manifestation of that vision.
All they had to do to make it happen was risk everything.
Seidler pointed to Manny Machado, by that point shirtless and drenched in alcohol.
“He was the big chip,” Seidler said. “And now it’s a place where all players wanna play.”
In February 2019, the Padres signed Machado to a $300 million contract that shocked the industry and forever changed the perception of their franchise. As the Padres’ offense languished through most of this past summer, it was Machado who kept them afloat, playing almost daily and producing like an MVP. His performance helped lead them back into the postseason, and once they got there, it was their two boldest trade additions who lifted them.
Juan Soto, quite possibly the biggest midseason acquisition in baseball history, produced the game-tying hit and later came around to score in the five-run seventh inning that produced an epic comeback.
Josh Hader, who had arrived in another blockbuster trade two days earlier, closed it out in the ninth, sending the Padres into the NL Championship Series for the first time since 1998.
“They’re phenomenal players,” Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller said. “That’s why we made the trades, honestly. It’s pretty simple — they’re the best at what they do in the world. If you’re gonna beat a team like that, you need guys that are the best in the game.”
No man embodies the boldness of these Padres better than Preller, widely regarded as the most hyper-aggressive executive in the sport, for better or worse. When he first joined the Padres in 2014, Preller went all-in with expensive veteran players. It didn’t work, he sold off pieces, quickly rebuilt the farm system — and used those assets to go for it again.
The Machado contract was followed by a flurry of trades that outfitted the starting rotation with names such as Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Mike Clevinger, Joe Musgrove and Sean Manaea. The team was expected to compete with the Dodgers in 2021, and for a while, it did. A second-half collapse saw them miss the playoffs entirely but paved the way for the hiring of Bob Melvin, one of the most revered managers in the sport. Finally, a subpar start to the 2022 season led to the moves that ultimately pushed the Padres over the top.
Last year’s collapse was centered on activity around the trade deadline, when, among other things, Preller spoke to Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo about the possibility of combining Max Scherzer and Trea Turner in a package, then watched that package go to the Dodgers. The Padres did not do much else, and faded shortly thereafter. This year, Preller was determined not to miss out again. On July 31, he sent his closer, Taylor Rogers, and three others to the Milwaukee Brewers for Hader, then shipped all of his best young players — Robert Hassell, CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore, among others — to the Nationals for Soto and the power-hitting Josh Bell on Aug. 2.
It took two months for those moves to truly pan out.
After arriving in San Diego, Hader struggled so badly that he was removed as the closer, only to find his form near the end of the regular season. So far, he has displayed his customary dominance in October. Soto lacked his prototypical power for most of August and September but is now a major threat once again.
“With Juan, it’s not a matter of if he’s gonna get going — it’s a matter of when,” Preller said. “He got some huge hits in this series, huge hits tonight. He’s that guy.”
Soto, the 23-year-old outfielder who has already drawn comparisons to Ted Williams, had a .388 on-base percentage in 52 regular-season games with the Padres but slugged only .390, 43 points below this year’s major league average. Then he compiled four hits in Games 2 and 3 of the Padres’ wild-card series against the New York Mets. And though his NLDS numbers (3-for-16) didn’t jump out, he produced eight batted balls that exceeded 100 mph, which doesn’t include his 95 mph single in Saturday’s seventh inning.
“It was a really important moment, a tight moment, and I just wanted to come through for this team,” Soto said in Spanish. “I’m trying to give them everything I have and see how far we can take this.”
As much as Soto settling in ahead of Machado changes the outlook of the Padres’ lineup, Hader dominating the ninth inning changes the dynamic of their bullpen.
Hader, a four-time All-Star, gave up 22 runs in a nine-inning stretch from July 13 to Aug. 28, an unimaginable slump for one of the sport’s most dominant relievers. Toward the tail end of that stretch, the Padres demoted Hader to low-leverage work. But then he started to get right again. The bad mechanical habits he picked up near the end of his stint with the Brewers were eventually corrected. And down the stretch, while other relievers emerged, he allowed just one unearned run and five baserunners over his last 10 appearances of the regular season. So far, he’s pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings in the playoffs.
“This is the worst down I’ve ever had, but you can’t give up,” Hader said. “You can’t just roll over and be like, ‘Oh well, this is the way it is.’ You can’t do that. We play this game way too hard, we play it way too much to just give up. It made me a better player, knowing that mentally, if you can go through that s—, you can go through anything. You just have to continue to trust what you do.”
Saturday night was a culmination for Seidler, who famously called the Dodgers “the dragon up the freeway that we’re trying to slay.” His franchise has slayed the dragon — on the strength of the stars who were brought in and in front of the fans who had rallied around them.
Petco Park normally attracts so many Dodgers fans that it is unofficially named “Dodger Stadium South.” But that was different on Friday and Saturday. The team geo-restricted the primary ticket market to maximize the number of Padres fans in attendance, limiting sales to people residing in the San Diego area and creating an unprecedented energy at Petco Park. Bright yellow towels decorated the ballpark; “Beat L.A.” chants filled the air; fake geese dotted the stands. Rain started to come down hard in the late innings, but nobody left.
Seidler was asked whether he could have ever imagined this type of energy in this city.
“No,” he said. “I could dream all kinds of things, but this, what happened yesterday and today, was remarkable.
“Every single fan I think is still in the building, and it’s been half an hour after we won. And they’re wet and they’re cold, but they love this group of players, and the players love the fans.”
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Dan Wetzel
As victims go, Lane Kiffin doesn’t seem like one.
He could have stayed at Ole Miss, made over $10 million a year, led his 11-1 team into a home playoff game and become an icon at a place where he supposedly found personal tranquility. Or he could’ve left for LSU to make over $10 million a year leading a program that has won three national titles this century.
Fortunate would be one description of such a fork in life’s road. The result of endless work and talent would be another.
But apparently no one knows a man’s burdens until they’ve walked a mile in his hot yoga pants.
Per his resignation statement on social media, it was spiritual, familial and mentor guidance that led Kiffin to go to LSU, not all those five-star recruits in New Orleans.
“After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” he wrote.
In an interview with ESPN’s Marty Smith, Kiffin noted “my heart was [at Ole Miss], but I talked to some mentors, Coach [Pete] Carroll, Coach [Nick] Saban. Especially when Coach Carroll said, ‘Your dad would tell you to go. Take the shot.'” Kiffin later added: “I talked to God, and he told me it’s time to take a new step.”
After following everyone else’s advice, Kiffin discovered those mean folks at Ole Miss wouldn’t let him keep coaching the Rebels through the College Football Playoff on account of the fact Kiffin was now, you know, the coach of rival LSU.
Apparently quitting means different things to different people. Shame on Ole Miss for having some self-esteem.
“I was hoping to complete a historic six-season run … ,” Kiffin said. “My request to do so was denied by [Rebels athletic director] Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance.”
Well, if he hoped enough, Kiffin could have just stayed and done it. He didn’t. Trying to paint this as an Ole Miss decision, not a Lane Kiffin decision, is absurd. You are either in or you are out.
Leaving was Kiffin’s right, of course. He chose what he believes are greener pastures. It might work out; LSU, despite its political dysfunction, is a great place to coach ball.
Kiffin should have just put out a statement saying his dream is to win a national title, and as good as Ole Miss has become, he thinks his chance to do it is so much better at LSU that it was worth giving up on his current players, who formed his best and, really, first nationally relevant team.
At least it would be his honest opinion.
Lately, 50-year-old Kiffin has done all he can to paint himself as a more mature version of a once immature person. In the end, though, he is who he is. That includes traits that make him a very talented football coach. He is unique.
He might never live down being known as the coach who bailed on a title contender. It’s his life, though. It’s his reputation.
One of college sports’ original sins was turning playcallers into life-changers. Yeah, that can happen, boys can become men. A coach’s job is to win, though.
A great coach doesn’t have to be loyal or thoughtful or an example of how life should be lived.
This is the dichotomy of what you get when you hire Kiffin. He was on a heater in Oxford, winning in a way he never did with USC or Tennessee or the Oakland Raiders.
That seemingly should continue at resource-rich LSU. Along the way, you get a colorful circus, a wrestling character with a whistle, a high-wire act that could always break bad. It rarely ends well — from airport firings to near-riot-inducing resignations to an exasperated Nick Saban.
LSU should just embrace it — the good and the not so good. What’s more fun than being the villain? Kiffin might be a problem child, but he’s your problem child. It will probably get you a few more victories on Saturdays. He will certainly get you a few more laughs on social media.
It worked for Ole Miss, at least until it didn’t. Then the Rebels had to finally push him aside. This is Lane Kiffin. You can hardly trust him in the good times.
If anything, Carter had been too nice. He probably should have demanded Kiffin pledge his allegiance weeks back, after Kiffin’s family visited Gainesville, Florida, as well as Baton Rouge.
Instead, Kiffin hemmed and hawed and extended the soap opera, gaining leverage along the way.
Blame was thrown on the “calendar,” even though it was coaches such as Kiffin who created it. And leaving a championship contender is an individual choice that no one else is making.
Blame was put on Ole Miss, as if it should just accept desperate second-class hostage status. Better to promote defensive coordinator Pete Golding and try to win with the people who want to be there.
To Kiffin, the idea of winning is seemingly all that matters. Not necessarily winning, but the idea of winning. Potential playoff teams count for more than current ones. Tomorrow means more than today. Next is better than now.
Maybe that mindset is what got him here, got him all these incredible opportunities, including his new one at LSU, where he must believe he is going to win national title after national title.
So go do that, unapologetically. Own it. Own the decision. Own the quitting. Own the fallout. Everything is possible in Baton Rouge, just not the Victim Lane act.
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Ryan S. Clark
St. Louis Blues rookie forward Jimmy Snuggerud will miss up to six weeks to have surgery on his left wrist, the team announced Monday morning.
The 21-year-old Snuggerud, who was a first-round pick by the Blues in 2022, used the opening quarter of the season to establish himself as a top-nine forward. His five goals were two away from being tied for the team lead while his 11 points are tied for sixth. He is also seventh in ice time among Blues forwards at 15:26 per game.
His performances also allowed him to maintain a presence within a rookie class that has seen several players make an impact. Snuggered entered Monday tied for eighth in goals among first-year players.
It appears the earliest Snuggerud could return to the lineup, should the six-week timeline hold, would be mid-January. That would allow him to play about 10 games before the NHL enters the Olympic break. The Blues play their last game before the break on Feb. 4.
Snuggerud isn’t the only injury the Blues are managing, with the team also announcing that forward Alexey Toropchenko is week-to-week after sustaining what they described as scalding burns to his legs in a home accident. He’s the second NHL player this season to sustain an injury at home, with Florida Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen out of the lineup indefinitely after a “barbecuing mishap” that Panthers coach Paul Maurice shared with reporters on Nov. 19.
Toropchenko has a goal and two points while averaging 11:29 in ice time over 17 games this season.
Those absences are the latest developments in what has seen the Blues, which made the playoffs last season, endure one of the most challenging starts of any team in the NHL through the first quarter of this season.
St. Louis (9-10-7) entered Monday as part of a cluster of five teams that are within two points of the Chicago Blackhawks for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
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