San Diego Padres: 3 April numbers to concern Padres fans

With April almost gone, the San Diego Padres sit at 13-14 with a month of frustrating outings. Both pitching and batting have been less than exemplary, and here are three numbers that will have Padres fans concerned.

.200 – Soto, Grisham, and Kim are all below the Mendoza Line for San Diego Padres

It’s almost inconceivable that Juan Soto, Trent Grisham, and Ha-Seong Kim are all under .200 for April. Another way to express the fact is that over $33 million of salary, according to Spotrac, is sitting below the Mendoza line. Not a fair return on investment in anyone’s opinion.

Juan Soto is the majority of that salary ($24m) and his .198 BA is most disappointing. Soto has contributed 17 runs but has only batted above .200 in four games. His last home run and RBI came in the same game, April 19 versus the Braves, and has contributed very little since in the seven subsequent games.

Trent Grisham is on a six-game hitless streak to end the month from 17 at-bats. Grisham started the month with a five-game hitting streak with five hits and three runs from 19 at-bats.

All three batters have contributed to the Padres’ strikeout numbers: Soto (29), Grisham (27), and Kim (22). It’s symptomatic of the batting line-up trying to hit their way out of trouble rather than get batters into play and make something happen.

It’s unfair to land all of the Padres’ inconsistency on Soto, but his poor month has contributed.