Padres Opening Day: Three bold predictions for the 2021 season

Before Thursday hits, we turn the calendar to April and bask in Padres Opening Day in all its glory, let’s just take a few minutes and have some fun. I mean, the Friars are the most exciting team in baseball so it only makes sense we shake it up and go big in one last preseason piece.

We’re going to dive right in. Three bold predictions for San Diego this year. Bold predictions, hot takes – whatever you want to call them, we’ve got them. Let’s go.

Padres Opening Day: Wil Myers pops 40 home runs this year

That’s right. All aboard, baby. The Wil Myers hype train is leaving the station. Destination: October.

Last season, the Padres outfielder mashed, slashing .288/.353/.606. Keep in mind he’d never even slugged .500 before, let alone .600. The dude was a machine for the Friars, hitting 15 home runs in just 55 games. By comparison, he hit 18 the year prior… in 155 games. Locked in doesn’t even begin to describe what we saw from Myers in the shortened 2020 season.

But 2021 is a different story, right? Doing something for 162 games is a whole lot different than getting hot and staying hot for two months. Wrong. While it might be different, the changes we’ve seen in Myers – accepting his role amid a supporting cast that often outshines him and embracing it with open arms – is why I think he’s about to have the best year of his career.

Calling it. Right now. Forty homers for Myers. Don’t be shocked if he makes his second All-Star team or even flirts with the MVP conversation. Teams come into San Diego worrying about Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado. Meanwhile, Myers is lying in wait, ready to pounce.

Padres Opening Day: Mark Melancon flirts with Trevor Hoffman’s saves record

Only one San Diego Padres reliever has ever surpassed 50 saves in a season. It’s not like I have to tell you who that individual is. After all, he’s one of the greatest closers in baseball history.

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Back in 1998, Trevor Hoffman and the Padres ran roughshod through the Senior Circuit en route to the Fall Classic. The right-hander notched 53 saves on the year, making 66 appearances and working to a career-best 1.48 ERA. His efforts netted him a runner-up finish in NL Cy Young voting that year – although he and the Friars fell short of that World Series title.

This year, due largely in part to the people around him, I think Mark Melancon will make a run at Hoffman’s record. I know Jayce Tingler hasn’t named a closer. But when I look at the likes of Drew Pomeranz, Keone Kela, Emilio Pagan and Melancon, I see the first three being far more flexible than the latter.

Insert Melancon in the ninth (at least for the sake of this piece). With an offense poised to be one of the best in all of baseball and a starting rotation that, at least on paper, is capable of going toe-to-toe with any offense in baseball on any given night, he’s going to get plenty of save opportunities.

At that point, it’s up to the veteran right-hander, who has, it’s worth mentioning, eclipsed 50 saves in his career. Back in 2015 with Pittsburgh, Melancon notched 51 saves and followed it up with 47 a year later.