PEORIA, Ariz. — Gavin Sheets was little more than an intriguing player at this point in Padres camp a year ago.
Now, he is the incumbent. As of now, though, he is little more than that.
The Padres plan on the big left-handed hitter playing first base and serving as designated hitter.
They also brought in Miguel Andujar and Nick Castellanos (and even Ty France and Jose Miranda) to work there, too.
“I think it’s what happens when you play for teams with World Series aspirations and good teams,” Sheets said. “There’s always gonna be competition. You never get complacent in the big leagues, regardless. It doesn’t matter what you did last year. It’s a new year. For me, I think at the end of the day, I handle my business, I play well, I’m fine.”
So it is a similar mindset he had a year ago when he was not assured of a big-league gig, having signed with the Padres as a minor-league free agent shortly before spring training. And that turned out well.
After four seasons with the Chicago White Sox — the first two good and the second two leaving him just hanging on — he did not just have a resurgent season but the best season of his career in 2025.
Sheets worked his way into the starting lineup twice, was by some measures the Padres’ best hitter in two separate months, and finished the season with career highs in home runs (19), doubles (28) and RBIs (71).
Along the way, through nearly daily drill work at a position he had started at just eight times before last season, “he made left field his (expletive).”
That, according to Jackson Merrill.
“Honestly,” Merrill said, “I don’t know any other way to put it, other than he made left field his (expletive).”
Sheets’ 111 wRC+ was his highest since 2021, his rookie season, and his 1.3 fWAR was more than twice his previous high (0.5 in 2021).
But those numbers don’t adequately contextualize what Sheets did — from the time he hit a game-tying pinch-hit home run in the seventh inning of the Padres’ opening-day victory to his five go-ahead RBIs in an 11-game span in mid-May to his 12-game hitting streak in June to his 1.209 OPS in August.
Sheets began the season by hitting .344 (21-for-67) with four doubles and three home runs through 21 games. He was mostly pinch-hitting, playing first base and serving as DH in that span.
By mid-May, the Padres were clearly bereft of left field options who could produce at the plate. So Sheets began playing there. Beginning on May 25, he started 38 of the team’s next 58 games in left field, including 32 of 41 leading up to the trade deadline.
That is when the Padres acquired Ramón Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn from the Orioles.
Laureano took over in left. O’Hearn, a left-handed hitter like Sheets, was coming off a July All-Star nod, and he played first base and DH.
What Sheets said the day after the trade deadline helps explain why he came to be seen as a leader in the clubhouse.
“Obviously, things will change a little bit,” he said on Aug. 1. “But the way I’m gonna go about my business will be the exact same. … Winning baseball is the most fun baseball. So whatever it is, whatever that given role is each day, it’s go out and help win a baseball game. It’s the best brand of baseball, and that’s the baseball we’re gonna play now.”
He did not start again until Aug. 11 and had just 11 plate appearances in the 15 games between Aug. 1 and Aug. 18.
But Sheets went 4-for 7 with two doubles in a four-game stretch Aug. 14-18 and was back in the lineup as the left fielder on Aug. 19. He played left field for the next two weeks while Laureano shifted to center for the injured Merrill. He served as the DH for much of September and, when Laureano suffered a fractured finger, was back in left field at the end of the regular season and in the National League Wild Card Series.
“He filled in a lot of spots when people were down,” Merrill said. “He was hitting when we needed him. It’s safe to say we wouldn’t have been where we were last year without Gavin.”
Sheets’ renaissance was largely due to a change in his batting stance and alteration in the plane of his swing and a newfound ability to hit left-handed pitching.
After entering the season with a career line of .168/.216/.242 in 176 plate appearances against lefties, Sheets improved his batting average against them by 87 points (to .255) and his OPS by 212 points (to .670).
“I think there’s still another level,” he said. “I think last year was a huge jump against lefties, especially. But I think that comes from facing them. You get to face them. You get at-bats against them, and it’s amazing how you get better off them when you see them. So that’s something that I’m looking to build off of, but definitely a good step in the right direction.”
He likely needs to keep trending up, especially against left-handers, if he is to play as significant a role in 2026 as he did in ‘25.
Where the Padres began last season with Jason Heyward as their left fielder and Yuli Gurriel trying to hang on as a first baseman and DH, they brought in younger and seemingly more viable candidates this year in Castellanos and Andujar.
In that way, because he wants to be an everyday player, it is very much another prove-it year for Sheets.
“Coming here and being a part of this organization and the growth that I had last year was definitely the best thing for my career,” he said. “And that’s why the stuff like the roster moves we made and everything doesn’t really faze me. At the end of the day, it’s control what you can control and be the best individual you can be. I’m just looking to build off last year, and if I build off what I did last year and continue to improve, I’m gonna be fine. So that’s the way I handle it and go about my business.”