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.

6.75 ERA – Michael Wacha has not delivered so far for San Diego Padres

When Michael Wacha signed with the Padres, the purpose of his signing was to bolster the starting pitcher rotation. With Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, and Blake Snell making the top three positions, Wacha fit into the number slot as a veteran pitcher who had delivered a 3.32 ERA for the Boston Red Sox in 2022 with an 11-2 record.

The reality is that Wacha’s pitching has not met his 2022 numbers. Looking at his velocity, care of Baseball Savant, both fastball (-1.3 mph) and offspeed (-2.5 mph) pitches have dropped noticeably. Batters have taken advantage with sweet spot percentage up 10 percentage points and barrel percentage up by two points. Interestingly, Wacha has relied more on his changeup in 2023 with 31 percent of pitches coming that way.

Wacha’s first two outings for the Padres produced wins and his performance against the Braves, 6.0 IP with two hits and 10 strikeouts, was exactly the return that he was signed to produce. Since then, Wacha has given up 15 runs in three outings with 15.1 innings pitched.

The return of Joe Musgrove has helped the Padres’ rotation while Wacha, and Blake Snell’s well-documented slow start, have exerted undue pressure.