Three players who need to step up for the Padres this season

San Diego Padres second baseman Xander Bogaerts.

The Padres are coming off the weekend barely avoiding a three-game sweep against the Toronto Blue Jays with a 6-3 win at home on Sunday.

San Diego now sits in second place in the NL West with a 12-12 record just one game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. The division is shaping up to be a lot closer than many would have assumed.

With that being said there have been multiple players who have outperformed what was expected of them and put the Padres in a great spot now a month into the season.

However, here are three players on the roster who need to turn things around for San Diego to stay competitive and ultimately reach the playoffs

Second baseman Xander Bogaerts

Now in his second season with the Padres, Bogaerts is off to a rough start. Through 102 plate appearances, he has a slash line of .204/.275/.290, two home runs, 10 RBI, 15 runs and an OPS+ of 63. Those numbers would be bad for any player in the league much less a player under a 10-year $280M contract.

What makes his performance feel even worse is that everyone knows what he’s capable of. In his 10 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, he won five Silver Slugger awards and was named to four All-Star games with an OPS of .814 in 5,389 plate appearances.

A simple fix could be to just move Bogaerts further down in the lineup but the manager Mike Schildt hasn’t shown much interest in that option. Bogaerts has bat leadoff every in every single game this year he has appeared in.

Right-hander Joe Musgrove

With Padres ace Yu Darvish struggling with early neck injuries, Musgrove’s role in the starting rotation has become all the more important. It seems as though his spring training troubles have followed him into the regular season.

Through six starts he has allowed 37 hits (most in MLB), 20 earned runs, and 11 walks with an ERA of 5.74 and a WHIP of 1.532. His WAR has even dipped into the negatives at -0.2. Musgrove is set to make $20M this season which ties him for the 17th highest-paid starting pitcher. Of all qualified SPs, he has the 65th-worst ERA.

If there is no improvement soon he could find himself slipping in the starting rotation behind Michael King, Dylan Cease and Darvish once he returns from injury.

Third baseman Manny Machado

With Machado rehabbing an extensor tendon in his right elbow that required surgery, he has been relegated to strictly playing designed hitter for the Padres. Considering how amazing he is defensively it’s a major loss to his overall production. As of now, he hasn’t made up for it offensively either.

Machado ranks sixth among qualified Padres players in terms of OPS (.741), fifth in batting average (.260), sixth in RBI (12) and has struck out the most (24) all while having the most at-bats (96).

On Monday he was put on paternity leave, and maybe with a few days rest he can return to the consistent hitter the Padres need.

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