San Diego Padres: Expectations for the upcoming decade

Instead of focussing on the past decade, we look towards what the future could look like for the San Diego Padres and what the expectations should be.

Let’s be honest, the past 10 years for the San Diego Padres have been more forgettable than memorable.

I know I said we weren’t going to focus on the past, but allow me to do so very briefly.

Over the last 10 seasons the Padres have had a winning record just once and finished better than third in the NL West just once, and that came all the way back at the beginning of the decade in 2010.

Other than that 2010 season when they won 90 games, the most games a San Diego team has won over the last 10 years is 76.

And making matters worse with that 2010 season, the second Wild Card wasn’t a thing and they missed making the playoffs by a game.

The best season from a Padres player came in 2012 when Chase Headley burst on the scene to hit .286/.376 with 31 home runs, 95 runs, and 115 RBI to go along with an OPS of .875.

He finished that year fifth in the MVP voting and won the Silver Slugger award at third base along with his one and only Gold Glove award.

Headley had a 6.4 WAR season that year, and according to Baseball Reference it was the highest WAR season for a Padre this past decade. And the only time a Padres player had a WAR over 5.

It was pretty much a flash in the pan for Headley as he never put up a similar season and was traded a couple of seasons later.

Needless to say, we are expecting much better things from the Padres in the decade to come. So instead of giving you our all-decade teams from the last 10 years, we’re going to focus on the decade to come.