{"id":439606,"date":"2026-08-21T17:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T17:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439606\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T17:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T17:56:10","slug":"clubhouse-chatter-how-the-padres-spend-their-off-days-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439606\/","title":{"rendered":"Clubhouse chatter: How the Padres spend their off-days in San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday marked the first off day in San Diego since trade-deadline activity brought a handful of new Padres into the fold.<\/p>\n

The local tourism board certainly knows how to sell America\u2019s Finest City, but word of mouth is generally as convincing as anything if Casey Mize, Robbie Ray and Austin Hays are looking for recommendations for the best ways to enjoy their new city during pauses in the schedule.<\/p>\n

\"AA sea lion basks in the sun in La Jolla, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo\/Annika Hammerschlag)<\/p>\n

Naturally, the water is a draw for many a Padre and tourist.<\/p>\n

Sung-Mun Song is a bit of both in his first year playing in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cI visit La Jolla Cove because of the sea lions,\u201d Song said through interpreter Juneseo Yi. \u201cThat was my first time actually seeing sea lions in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ty France and Mason Miller had enjoyed the beach at Coronado with their families (before the pollution issues), Jackson Merrill likes to walk in the surf with his girlfriend and Jake Cronenworth often cruises along the waterfront on his bike.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Maher does a cutback while surfing on a wave in La Jolla during an extended Beach Hazards Statement for high surf on June 10, 2026 in San Diego, CA. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Reliever David Morgan loves the water, except he knows better than to surf during the baseball season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not worth it,\u201d said Morgan, currently deployed to Triple-A El Paso. \u201cWhen I\u2019m not surfing consistently, I get really sore from it. But on an off-day I\u2019ll just hang out at the beach \u2026 or golf at The Farms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Count Griffin Canning and Gavin Sheets among those he could run into on a green in Rancho Santa Fe. Sheets was there a couple of weeks ago with dad, former big-leaguer Larry Sheets, and holed out on a par-3.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a really fun course,\u201d the younger Sheets said. \u201cI have a hole-in-one there, so it\u2019s easily become one of my favorite courses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael King and his family enjoy trying different restaurants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our favorite thing in general,\u201d King said. \u201cWe had to change our palate coming from New York to San Diego, because New York is very Italian, steak, that kind of food. We came over here and we tried that and it was good, but they\u2019re like, \u2018No, no, no. The best places you can go for are Mexican and fish.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo those are now our favorite places to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremiah Estrada and his fianc\u00e9 frequent Buga Korean BBQ, while rookie reliever Bradgley Rodriguez and his wife have a favorite spot, too: Argentinian steakhouse Piedra Santa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just like the way that they cut the steaks for us,\u201d Rodriguez said through interpreter Jorge Merlos, \u201cand they\u2019ve always treated us nice there ever since the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Diego is home to a number of attractions \u2014 from SeaWorld to Legoland to Sesame Place \u2014 that lure Padres with young kids or simply players who remain young at heart.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe entrance to the San Diego Zoo in San Diego on Thursday, July 23, 2026. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

The San Diego Zoo has been a staple in reliever Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n\u2019s off-day rotation since he debuted as a 20-year-old in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the years I\u2019ve spent here, I come like four, five, six times a year,\u201d Morej\u00f3n said. \u201cEvery time I have family in town, we all go to the zoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same goes for fellow left-hander Kyle Hart, who\u2019s developed a bit of an evening off-day routine designed to entertain his 3-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loves the zoo nights where they do the parade and all that stuff,\u201d Hart said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll go eat dinner, see a couple animals, and then watch the parade.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday marked the first off day in San Diego since trade-deadline activity brought a handful of new Padres…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":["post-439606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}