San Diego Padres all-time best starting lineup based on WAR

The San Diego Padres may have only recently gotten a lot of national attention, but they have a long and storied history of having really talented players on their roster. Sure, they don't have the catalog of players to look through that teams like the Yankees and Red Sox do, but there has been a lot of talent in that locker room over the years.

There are no shortage of arguments over what the best Padres team of all time would look like as a result. Some fans just have their personal favorites they would want to fold in while others would look at peak seasons of all-time, etc. There are a lot of ways to do this sort of thing and there are no "wrong answers" here unless your team doesn't have Tony Gwynn on it.

Here is the San Diego's all-time best lineup based on WAR

However, we decided to take a look at an all-time Padres lineup based solely on career bWAR. For the record, we would take the Padres' current 2023 lineup over this one any day. The criteria for a player being eligible at each position is that they had to play at least 25% of their time with the Padres playing at said position to add some variety to the list and to prevent weird "this guy played one game at catcher so he is our catcher" issues.

This list is also based on the bWAR they accumulated with the Padres, so guys like Ozzie Smith won't be making an appearance here along with other guys who made cameo appearances with the team. We also chose bWAR because the index for this sort of thing is easy to navigate and not a value judgment regarding bWAR vs. fWAR.

Lets take a look at the Padres all-time best lineup by WAR listed by position.

Catcher - Gene Tenace

This one was a bit of a surprise as the Padres did have Benito Santiago on the team for six seasons and he played pretty well during that stretch. However, it is nice to see Gene Tenace get some love as his ability to get on base was very underrated during his career.

Tenace saw time at first base and catcher in his career and he played for the Padres from 1977-1980 where he accumulated 19.8 bWAR in 573 games. His slash line with the Padres in 2094 plate appearances was .237/.403/.422. Tenace's .825 OPS with the Padres was also the best among all catchers that played more than one season with the team.

Terry Kennedy, who was a Padre from 1981-1986, finished second with 17.0 bWAR and Benito Santiago came in third with 14.2 bWAR for his work from 1986 to 1992.

First Base - Adrian Gonzalez

This one was a bit less surprising as Adrian Gonzalez was very, very good for San Diego from 2006-2010 before he was traded to the Boston Red Sox. In nearly 800 games with the Padres, Gonzalez put up a .288/.374/.514 line which added up to 20.4 bWAR and three All-Star appearances.

Gonzalez would go on to put up 43.5 bWAR in his career as he would have successful stints with the Red Sox and Dodgers before ending his career with the Mets in 2018.

Gene Tenace would finish second here and 19.8 bWAR and that is fortunate considering how the catcher numbers turned out. Phil Nevin came in third at 17.8 bWAR for his work from 1999 to 2005.

Second Base - Bip Roberts

This was another surprise as the Padres have a pair of guys right now with success and experience at second base in Jake Cronenworth and Ha-Seong Kim not to mention guys like Roberto Alomar and Mark Loretta. However, the numbers are the numbers and Bip Roberts gets the nod here.

Roberts played for San Diego from 1986 to 1995 and put up over 2500 plate appearances with the team. He only hit 20 home runs during that entire time which is kind of impressive really, but he also slashed .298/.361/.387 during his time in San Diego. If he hit for any sort of power, this wouldn't have been close. However, his 12.5 bWAR still edged out the competition.

In second place was Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar who put up 12.2 bWAR in his three seasons with the Padres. Ha-Seong Kim came in third with 11.6 bWAR.

Shortstop - Fernando Tatis Jr.

Fernando Tatis Jr. may no longer be a shortstop, but his previous work at the position and being the offensive force he has been was more than enough to take the crown at shortstop.

From 2019 to present, Fernando has put up 17.6 bWAR thanks to a .291/.363/.577 line with 98 home runs and 67 stolen bases. His suspension for testing positive for a banned substance certainly hurt his numbers and put a stain on his legacy but based purely on production, Tatis Jr. allowed him to secure first place easily.

In second place is Ha-Seong Kim again who seems like he is most certainly on pace to get the nod for this list in the future. Third place did go to Ozzie Smith for his defense-driven 10.9 bWAR from 1978 to 1981.

Third Base - Manny Machado

The Padres have had some pretty good third basemen in their history including Chase Headley, Ken Caminiti, and Phil Nevin. As it turns out though, being a perennial MVP candidate means that you are putting up some big time numbers and Manny Machado edges out the competition here despite his limited time in San Diego.

Machado has put up a .276/.346/.498 and 19.6 bWAR with 126 home runs and 35 steals while also being a strong defender at third base during his time with the Padres. Given that Machado is under contract in San Diego until 2033, he is going to have plenty of time to pad his lead here.

Chase Headley came in second place at 18.2 bWAR from 2007 to 2018. Phil Nevin barely edged out Caminiti's 17.5 bWAR for third place.

Left Field - Gene Richards

Two of the Padres' all-time outfield spots seemed to be up in the air before the numbers were checked. We decided to be make sure that guys had actually played at each position and for left field, Gene Richards gets the spot.

Richards gets missed sometimes when looking at all-time great Padres, but he was a really strong hitter for San Diego from 1977 to 1983. in over 3800 plate appearances with the team, Richards put up 19.0 bWAR with a .291/.357/.387 line and 242 stolen bases. A lack of power hurt him (he had just 26 homers with the Padres), but he easily took home the left field honors nonetheless.

Ryan Klesko came in second place as he put up 15.7 bWAR from 2000 to 2006 while hitting 133 home runs. Bip Roberts makes another appearance here as he came in comfortably in third place.