Padres must be furious Dodgers finally got the Tanner Scott they envisioned

This is something that could make a Padres fan stare into the middle distance. Tanner Scott isn’t just killing it right now. He’s absolutely ridiculous. The Dodgers are finally getting the version of Scott that everyone thought they were buying when they handed him a four-year, $72 million deal. And though the Padres bullpen is still very good, this stings because it’s happening with their division rivals.

The Padres weren’t going to match that contract. So that’s not really the issue. It’s that this is the exact pitcher the Padres chased at the 2024 trade deadline. And his performance so far this season was the whole point.

They gave up a lot to acquire Scott. They sent Robby Snelling, Adam Mazur, Graham Pauley and Jay Beshears to the Marlins for him. They did it because he had the kind of October stuff they were looking for. 

And now, after a messy first year with Los Angeles, the Dodgers are getting the payoff.

The Dodgers are finally getting the Tanner Scott version the Padres once paid for

Scott’s 2026 Baseball Savant page looks like something Padres fans would have screenshotted and posted with one thousand flame emojis. An 87th percentile pitching run value. A 93rd percentile xERA at 2.64. A .219 xBA. We could go on because it’s truly filthy stuff. But let’s highlight the craziest of them all: 100th percentile chase rate. Seriously? 

Hitters are expanding against Scott at a 42.5 percent clip. He’s getting hitters to completely abandon their plan and chase his instead.

The 2025 version of Scott with the Dodgers was a mess. And that was easy to live with. He had a 4.74 ERA, blew 10 saves, fought his command and looked nothing like the sure thing Los Angeles thought it purchased. 

That was easy for San Diego to stomach. He walked, got paid, then stumbled. 

Since then, he’s cleaned up in a big way. His average exit velocity is down to 88.2 mph. His hard-hit rate is sitting in the 98th percentile at 26.3 percent. The walk rate is even more absurd…he’s in the 100th percentile there, too, with a 2.6 percent mark.

Needless to say, the combination is disgusting. Power lefty. Strikeouts. Chase. Limited walks. Softer contact. Fine, we’ll just say this guy turned into 2022 Josh Hader. It’s beyond a rebound. This is the guy that can close the door on any given night right now.

The Padres paid the prospect price for Scott in 2024, got the rental version, watched him leave, watched him implode in Dodger blue, and now have to deal with the corrected version becoming a weapon for the one team they least want to see benefit from it. That’s the whole thing. 

At the same time, the Padres bullpen is doing just fine. They have one of the best closers in the league with Mason Miller, and plenty of options to shrink games. That’s what makes the Scott thing more annoying than disastrous. The Padres don’t need him right now; it just stings to watch the Dodgers benefit from a former deadline prize San Diego paid a real prospect price to acquire.

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