Analysts hyping up Padres as legitimate World Series contenders has fans believing

Even the most optimistic San Diego Padres fans did not think their team would be World Series contenders this season. Even after AJ Preller swung a trade for Dylan Cease on Opening Day eve, San Diego had lost Juan Soto, Blake Snell, Seth Lugo, and Josh Hader last offseason and were coming off a colossally disappointing 2023 campaign. The Padres had a chance to be interesting, but little else.

The numbers seemed to agree with that assessment. At the beginning of April, the Padres had just a 1.4% chance of winning the World Series and a 37.3% chance of making the playoffs at all. Given the perceived strength of the NL West as a division and what we knew about the Padres at the time, that certainly passed the eye test.

But then a funny thing happened. The Padres started winning ... and they kept winning. Now, after multiple moves went their way and some truly clutch performances kept the good times rolling, San Diego is one of the trendier picks by the national media to win the 2024 World Series.

Padres' stunning turnaround this season has their playoff odds going through the roof

As wild as it is to think about, it's hard to argue with DeRosa and O'Dowd's logic here. In addition to having legitimate stars they can lean on in Cease, Jackson Merrill, Jurickson Profar, and Manny Machado, the Padres seem built for a postseason run. They have multiple quality starters in their rotation that match up with anyone, and their bullpen might be the best in baseball (and could save them if things go sideways in a playoff game).

The oddsmakers are painting a very different picture these days. After being very, very fringe playoff contenders to start the season, the Padres are among the favorites. Their World Series chances have bumped up to 7.7% according to Fangraphs and they now have a 96.1% chance of making the playoffs. Winning the division will be tough with the Dodgers playing well right now, but that might not be a bad thing considering how division winners have fared in the playoffs under the new system.

It is obviously too soon to get too excited with a lot of regular season left to play since things could easily go wrong. However, the fact the Padres are even in this conversation this late has to be considered a win for fans far and wide considering where they started the season.

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