Why Padres are Well-Positioned in a Shortened 2020 Season

We take a look at why we believe this San Diego Padres team is well-positioned to succeed in a shortened 2020 MLB season.

The San Diego Padres will finally take the field again in 2020 now that we have a resumption of play in place with the new Opening Day set for July 23-24.

Teams will be tasked with playing a 60-game season in just 66 days. They’ll start the season with an expanded roster of 30 players but that will eventually dwindle down to the new normal of 26.

With the unusualness of this 2020 season, we’re almost guaranteed to see some odd things happen and some teams make the postseason that wouldn’t have in a normal MLB season.

I’m not saying the Padres couldn’t have made the postseason over a 162-game season, but they were certainly on the outside looking in by most predictions.

However, in a shortened season I think the Padres could have a very good chance and Jim Bowden of CBS Sports HQ points out why that is in this video.

Teams that have deep pitching staffs are usually going to have success in any season, so that’s not much of a surprise.

But when you consider that pitchers will likely be ahead of hitters early in the season as they normally are, and you could see the Padres surprise a lot of teams early with their depth in the starting rotation and bullpen.

Chris Paddack, Dinelson Lamet, Garrett Richards, Zach Davies, Joey Lucchesi, and Cal Quantrill make a very deep starting rotation.

And there are other youngsters right behind them who could step in as well in MacKenzie Gore and Luis Patino.

The bullpen may be one of the best in all of baseball with Kirby Yates, Emilio Pagan, Drew Pomeranz, and Craig Stammen leading the way with a bunch of young and talented arms behind them.

When you consider that most teams will limit their starters’ innings early in the year and we could see a lot of bullpen games, you have to think that heavily favors the Padres.

If San Diego uses their pitching depth to get off to a hot start we could really see them surprise some people and make a real push for the postseason in 2020.