To sum up the San Diego Padres’ 2023 season in one word, it is ‘Taesan Myeongdong Seoilpil’.
Before the season, San Diego coach Bob Melvin happily screamed that he was worried about how to organize the batting order. Brilliant hitters including Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Fernando Tatis Jr., Ha-seong Kim, and Jake Cronenworth were holding out. Even veteran Nelson Cruz joined in.
However, the San Diego leadership overlooked the saying, ‘Beads must be threaded to be treasured.’
Before the season, San Diego desperately needed reinforcements at first base. So, Bogaerts, who had played shortstop his entire life, was asked to use him as a first baseman. Bogaerts flatly refused.
San Diego had no choice but to take the ‘unfortunate measure’ of entrusting Bogaerts with shortstop, sending Ha-seong Kim to second base, and sending Cronenworth, who was a second baseman, to first base.무지개토토
As a result, it was a ‘handshake’. Only Kim Ha-seong did his part, but Bogaerts and Cronenworth did not do their job properly. Bogaerts signed an 11-year, $280 million contract, and Cronenworth also signed a 7-year, $80 million contract extension.
San Diego wanted to line up the infield with third baseman Machado, shortstop Kim Ha-seong, second baseman Cronenworth, and first baseman Bogaerts, but the analysis is that Bogaerts’ stubbornness ultimately prevented him from advancing to the fall baseball stage this season.
Of course, even if Bogaerts went to first base, the performance could have been bad.
However, given that San Diego is considering sending Bogaerts to first base next year and returning Kim Ha-seong to shortstop and Cronenworth to second base, it has been revealed that the infield movement experiment with Bogaerts ultimately failed.
San Diego also suffered from designated hitters throughout the season. He tried Cruz, Matt Carpenter, Ji-man Choi, etc., but failed.
Therefore, it seems that San Diego will have to solve the problem of controlling infield traffic and reinforcing the designated hitter ahead of next season.