The bigger questions, perhaps, are whether the Padres will merit reinforcement at the deadline, and what their biggest needs might be.<\/p>\n
Somehow, the Padres are tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for the first wild-card spot in the National League. With Tatis, Machado and Merrill all sporting OPSes below .700. With the offense through Tuesday ranked ahead only of the Kansas City Royals in runs per game. With right-hander Yu Darvish spending all season on the restricted list while recovering from major elbow surgery, and with Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove still not close to returning from injuries.<\/p>\n
Tatis has been hot of late, but complementary players such as Gavin Sheets, Miguel Andujar and Ty France have been among the Padres\u2019 biggest offensive contributors. If Machado and Merrill return to form, the team\u2019s lineup should be in relatively decent shape.<\/p>\n
Then again, another outfielder could help. Ram\u00f3n Laureano struggled before going on the injured list with a hip issue. Nick Castellanos was designated for assignment<\/a> on Wednesday after batting .191 with a .560 OPS in 122 plate appearances.<\/p>\n The bigger void, though, almost certainly will be in the rotation, which the Padres have been piecing together behind righties Michael King and Randy Vasquez all season.<\/p>\n Which prospects are left for Preller to move?<\/p>\n Catcher Ethan Salas, who just turned 20 on Monday, has regained his status as one of the game\u2019s top young talents, batting .309 with an .857 OPS at Double A. But Preller, as he did with Merrill, might consider him too valuable to trade.<\/p>\n Freddy Fermin, one of Preller\u2019s acquisitions at last year\u2019s deadline, entered Wednesday batting .130 with a .403 OPS. And Salas by the end of this season might be ready to pair with Luis Campusano, who got off to a good start and should return before long from a fractured left big toe.<\/p>\n If not Salas, Preller can dangle left-hander Kash Mayfield, the Padres\u2019 first-round pick in 2024, who is pitching well at High A. Righty Tucker Musgrove, a seventh-rounder in 2023, is a reliever at High A averaging more than two strikeouts per inning. Another possibility would be outfielder Ryan Wideman, a third-rounder in 2025. Wideman is hitting well and stealing bases at Low A, but his batted-ball luck indicates regression is possible, if not likely.<\/p>\n Preller will do something. He always does. Never afraid to double down on a strength, he has explored the market for high-end relievers, as The Athletic\u2019s Dennis Lin wrote last month<\/a>. And if the Detroit Tigers make back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal available, president of baseball operations Scott Harris should expect to hear from his counterpart in San Diego, over and over again.<\/p>\n Maybe the Padres will stumble, forcing Preller to refrain from heavy action. Maybe Feliciano and Jones will be unable or unwilling to provide fresh financial resources, depending upon when they are approved.<\/p>\n For the Padres, a lot rides on the next two months, even more than it does for most teams.<\/p>\n Brewers\u2019 Turang a tower of strength<\/p>\n During the World Baseball Classic, Los Angeles Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel served in the same capacity for Team USA and threw batting practice to the top American hitters.<\/p>\n One day, Ebel posed a question to Team USA manager Mark DeRosa.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you had to pick the guy who hit the ball the farthest consistently, who would you think it was?\u201d Ebel asked.<\/p>\n As Ebel recalls, DeRosa guessed Aaron Judge or Bryce Harper.<\/p>\n \u201cBrice Turang,\u201d Ebel replied.<\/p>\n Ebel said that during batting practice in Houston and Miami the Milwaukee Brewers second baseman hit balls to places he had never seen, displaying \u201cShohei-type power.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Brice Turang swings in a game against the Padres earlier this month. (Benny Sieu-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n Turang, 26, hit a career-high 18 home runs last season. This season he has seven, and his .456 slugging percentage and .858 OPS would represent career-highs. Ebel believes he is capable of one day hitting 35 to 40 homers.<\/p>\n Baseball America, in its report on Turang<\/a> entering the 2018 draft, wrote, \u201cat just 6-foot-1, 165 pounds, the biggest knock on him is his size.\u201d The 165 might have been a generous estimate. You would never know it looking at him, but Turang estimates he has gained 35 pounds since the Brewers took him 21st overall out of Santiago H.S. in Corona, Calif.<\/p>\n His biggest weight jump came after his rookie season in 2023, when Turang said he gained about 25 pounds, \u201ceating everything you can possibly eat, drinking tons of protein shakes.\u201d Training with Keith Coury, with whom he first worked when he was 16, he has increased his weight to the 185-190 pound range.<\/p>\n Coury, who once ran the sports performance side at a baseball training center operated by Turang\u2019s father, Brian, said Turang was concerned he might lose speed if he put on weight.<\/p>\n To Coury, who now works at MW Athletix, a facility founded by former NFL safety Marcus Williams, one didn\u2019t need to come at the expense of the other. Coury said his goal is always to create the best athlete possible, regardless of his or her sport.<\/p>\n Turang believes in him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s made a big difference, for sure,\u201d Turang said. \u201cI look skinny, but with the strength side of things, the explosiveness, running and all that stuff, he\u2019s helped me tremendously. A good bit of why I\u2019m here today is just from the training I\u2019ve had with him, his knowledge of training.\u201d<\/p>\n Turang even recommended Coury to Ebel, a longtime acquaintance whose sons, Brady and Trey, were star shortstops in Turang\u2019s hometown at Corona High. The Brewers last year drafted Brady with the 32nd pick overall. Trey, part of this year\u2019s draft class, is expected to go in the first three rounds.<\/p>\n Either would be fortunate to ascend to anywhere near Turang\u2019s level.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wants to be one of the greatest at what he does,\u201d Coury said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s starting to see that he has the opportunity to be really, really, really good at an elite level. That motivates him even more.\u201d<\/p>\n How Dodgers\u2019 Roberts helped Conforto<\/p>\n A frank conversation with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts couldn\u2019t save outfielder Michael Conforto\u2019s 2025 season. But it might have helped salvage his career.<\/p>\n Conforto, 33, flopped with the Dodgers, but is enjoying a resurgence with the Chicago Cubs. The impetus, he said, stemmed from his talk with Roberts near the trade deadline last July.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a tough realization last year, had to rethink the way I view the game, understand how I help a team win,\u201d Conforto said. \u201cIn L.A., I wanted to slug with the superstars. When I wasn\u2019t doing that, I didn\u2019t have a place to go.\u201d<\/p>\n The essence of Roberts\u2019 message, Conforto said, was, \u201cYou have to find a way to be valuable. You\u2019ve got to give me a reason to keep you around.\u201d<\/p>\n The Dodgers ended up keeping Conforto the entire season, even though he batted just .199 with 12 homers and a .637 OPS. However, they excluded him from all four of their playoff rosters.<\/p>\n \u201cI could see that once he was with us, from spring training all throughout the beginning part of the season, he was pressing. He just wasn\u2019t himself,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI could tell by nature he\u2019s a pleaser. He wanted to please his teammates, his coaches, the fans. I tried to give him as much runway as possible. I wanted him to be the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Roberts told Conforto to become more like the player he was at Oregon State and in the minors \u2013 athletic, free and easy, imposing his will on pitchers. But after signing his one-year, $17 million free-agent contract with the Dodgers, Conforto became passive, an overthinker, Roberts said.<\/p>\n By the time Conforto turned into the hitter Roberts envisioned \u2013 during live batting practice sessions in October, while off the active roster \u2013 it was too late.<\/p>\n \u201cThat really bummed me out,\u201d said Roberts, who describes himself as an admirer of Conforto\u2019s.<\/p>\n But after a period of reflection \u2014 with Conforto asking himself, \u201cDo I want it or not?\u201d \u2014 the 11-year veteran got on the right path.<\/p>\n \u201cI took a lot of motivation with me into the offseason, found myself again, got back to the things I used to do,\u201d Conforto said. \u201cGet in my legs. Use the whole field. Hit the fastball. Be a tougher out.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t be a guy who just gets fastballs blown by him, not in the profile of hitter I am. I really worked hard to get back to doing things the way I do \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n He described the free-agent contract he signed with the Cubs \u2014 one year, $2 million \u2014 as a \u201cprove it\u201d deal. So far, Conforto is doing just that. He\u2019s currently batting .266 with four homers and a .904 OPS. The latter figure would be his highest in a full season since 2017.<\/p>\n Roberts is thrilled for him.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier for his success,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n Short kings in Arizona<\/p>\n Around the Arizona Diamondbacks, it\u2019s almost like a running gag.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a joke about how we love to draft little left-handed hitting outfielders,\u201d said right-hander Merrill Kelly. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a common theme since I\u2019ve been here.\u201d<\/p>\n Actually, the Diamondbacks fancy all kinds of hitters on the smaller side. Their most recently promoted prospect, the 5-foot-10 Tommy Troy, is playing left field while the DBacks await the return of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. from a left hamstring strain.<\/p>\n But he joined the organization as a right-handed hitting infielder, drafted 12th overall out of Stanford in 2023.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-05-14T191652Z_478021853_MT1USATODAY28953373_RTRMADP_3_MLB-SAN-DIEGO-PADRES-AT-MILWAUKEE-BREWERS.jpeg\")
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