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.”
Sports
‘I told them the best option was him’: Pete Alonso showing why he’s the guy Juan Soto wanted hitting behind him
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — Juan Soto had several questions for the New York Mets during his free agent negotiations this past winter. One was about their lineup construction.
Soto had just spent the 2024 season in the Bronx as half of a historically productive duo who drew constant comparisons to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. He and Aaron Judge, the American League MVP, were a strenuous puzzle to solve in the New York Yankees‘ lineup. The left-handed Soto hit second. The right-handed Judge batted third. They protected each other and pulverized pitchers. Leaving the Yankees would mean leaving Judge.
“That was one of the essential parts of the discussion,” Soto told ESPN in Spanish on Tuesday. “Who was going to bat behind me?”
The answer seemed clear. Pete Alonso remained a free agent. The first baseman is homegrown and adored in Queens. More importantly, for lineup construction purposes, he’s a right-handed slugger. He isn’t on Judge’s level — who is? — but he ranks right behind Judge in home runs since debuting in 2019. He was an obvious complement to Soto.
“I told them the best option was him,” Soto said.
By late January, Alonso’s return still appeared unlikely. Mets owner Steve Cohen, during a fan event at Citi Field, called the negotiation “exhausting” and “worse” than the Soto pursuit. He left the door open, but much to the chagrin of Mets fans in the crowd that day, he also said the organization was ready to move on from the four-time All-Star.
Less than two weeks later, just days before spring training, the sides came to an agreement on a two-year contract with an opt-out after this season. The 30-year-old Alonso went from seemingly in the Mets’ past to protecting the franchise’s $765 million investment. Two months into the partnership, the early returns of the 2025 season support Soto’s opinion. The best example came in Tuesday’s win over the Miami Marlins.
The Mets, leading 6-5, had runners on the corners with one out in the sixth inning for Soto. Marlins manager Clayton McCullough brought in right-hander Ronny Henriquez — and, despite the runner on first, made the unusual decision to intentionally walk Soto. That loaded the bases for Alonso and created an inning-ending double-play opportunity with a righty-righty matchup — though McCullough made another unusual call by pulling in the infield and the outfield. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he wasn’t surprised by the Marlins’ decision to walk Soto.
“I think it gets to a point where it’s pick your poison there,” Mendoza said.
Two pitches later, Alonso cracked a 93-mph sinker into the left-center field gap for a bases-clearing triple, blowing the game open on a cold, blustery afternoon in Queens.
It was Alonso’s second double of the day — his first, a Texas Leaguer to right field in the third inning, drove in the Mets’ first two runs. Alonso has served as the offense’s engine in the three hole, behind leadoff man Francisco Lindor and Soto, batting .333 with three home runs, 15 RBIs and a 1.139 OPS through the club’s first 12 games.
“It seems like teams are trying to not get beat with Soto,” Mendoza said. “And then, before you know it, they’re making mistakes with Pete, and he’s been ready to go and making them pay.”
Alonso is looking to reverse a three-year decline in offensive production, making better swing decisions after the worst offensive campaign of his career in 2024. It’s early, but so far Alonso is laying off pitches outside the strike zone more often. He’s barreling pitches over the plate at a higher percentage. He’s crushing pitches the other way — in the Mets’ home opener Friday, he clubbed a 95-mph fastball from Kevin Gausman down and out of the strike zone for a two-run home run to right field.
Hitting behind Soto, who has a .404 on-base percentage as a Met, has made his work a little easier.
“He’s such a pro,” Alonso said of Soto. “Obviously, we know he has power, he has the hit tool. He can hit for average. Super dynamic player offensively. But the thing that I really benefit from is just seeing — because he sees a ton of pitches and just kind of seeing what they’re doing to him, obviously, it really helps because they’re trying to stay away from the middle of the zone with him and I can kind of take some mental notes with that.”
With more pitches to Soto, the game’s most disciplined hitter, comes more strain for pitchers. With more runners on base, comes more pitches — and fastballs — over the plate for Alonso to devour. It is a formula Soto envisioned over the winter. Whether it extends beyond this season remains unknown.
There’s no question he is popular with fans. During the Mets’ home opener Friday, Citi Field roared for Alonso during pregame introductions. The fans did so again when he stepped into the batter’s box for his first at-bat. And then once more, moments later, when he emerged from the dugout for a curtain call after hitting a two-run home run.
This week, one option for replacing Alonso was taken off the board when first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays agreed to a 14-year, $500 million contract extension. Guerrero’s contract should help Alonso’s earning potential if he chooses, as expected, to opt out of his contract and hit free agency again this winter.
For now, in his seventh season, Alonso is thriving as the Mets’ first baseman, hitting behind his team’s most valuable player.
“That’s why you want [protection] like that,” Soto said. “First of all, to have the chance to do more damage and stuff. But whenever they don’t want to pitch me, I know I have a guy behind me that could make it even worse for them.”
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