3 reasons to believe in the San Diego Padres despite a poor start to 2023

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Apr 13, 2023; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado (left) / Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

Underperforming San Diego Padres superstars due for positive regression

Juan Soto's early-season OPS is .784. Manny Machado's is .640. Jake Cronenworth's? .647. That's a lot of underperformance, albeit in a miniscule sample size.

The good news? Nelson Cruz is off to a hot start with a .919 OPS and Xander Bogaerts isn't doing too bad for himself either, with a blazing 1.042 OPS to begin his 2023. Ha-Seong Kim's .826 OPS has also made him a key early contributor with the bat.

You'd figure that the rest of the Padres' superstar talents will encounter positive regression to bring them more in line with the production that their salaries demand they deliver. And there's more than enough reason to believe in that being true with Manny Machado and Juan Soto. Even Jake Cronenworth's Baseball Savant page would suggest that a turnaround is forthcoming, given his HardHit percentage of 72, as compared to his unlucky .196 batting average and .250 BABIP.

You can't keep an elite lineup down forever, and soon enough, this group will fire on all cylinders once again.

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