Wild tweet highlights San Diego Padres' surprising offensive struggles

With a series in Mexico City against the San Francisco Giants looming, the San Diego Padres are limping into the festivities.

Bob Melvin's squad enters the weekend coming off a series loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, and the Padres continue to punch below their weight at 13-14 overall. And their vaunted lineup's inability to produce runs is a major culprit.

The San Diego Padres' lineup is vastly underachieving to begin 2023

In fact, San Diego's team OPS is lower than some of the worst-hitting ballclubs in the sport.

That is ... not a good look for the Padres, to say the least.

A lower OPS than the A's, who have the worst record in the sport, by the way. For further context, Oakland's best hitter, Brent Rooker, currently sports a 1.112 OPS, which is higher than any Padres batter right now (Xander Bogaerts, currently San Diego's top hitter, has an OPS of .919). Let that sink in.

Being in the company of other bad teams like the Tigers, Royals, White Sox, Nationals and Reds isn't of any additional comfort, though the Guardians' presence is perhaps a small consolation since they've also underachieved in the early going.

More than anything, this an indictment on the poor play of the San Diego Padres in the first month of the 2023 season. And with Fernando Tatis Jr. back, there shouldn't be any reason for this lineup to continue laying low. Juan Soto must step up, as must Manny Machado.

Ultimately, a lineup with this much talent won't stay down forever, but it's hard to accept being worse than the Oakland A's at anything related to on-field production. The Padres should regain their status as a force to be reckoned with in due time. But for now, there is much work to be done, starting this weekend in Mexico City.