San Diego Padres: The dream starting lineup for the 2024 season

4) J.D. Martinez - DH

Time for our first external addition. How sweet would it be to steal J.D. Martinez away from the rival Dodgers? Hopefully this doesn't mean Shohei Ohtani ends up there, of course, but Martinez would be a pretty great consolation prize for a Padres team that likely won't be landing Shohei Ohtani.

It looked like Martinez's career was nearing its end after a rough 2022 season. He struggled relative to Martinez's lofty expectations, and was dealing with a nagging back issue. As many do with the Dodgers, Martinez turned back the clock and had a great year as their DH.

The 36-year-old slashed .271/.321/.572 with 33 home runs and 103 RBI in 113 games this season for the Dodgers. He would've ranked second on this Padres team only behind Juan Soto in both home runs and RBI despite missing 49 games this past season. Adding a guy like that would certainly help things.

The Padres struggled to get any regular production out of the DH spot with the signings of Nelson Cruz and Matt Carpenter proving to be utter failures. Signing the second-best one on the market for a year or two would certainly help improve things in that area.