A few years ago, the Padres took a bold gambit, aggressively adding star players and ballooning their payroll to their luxury tax threshold, an unheard-of tactic for a franchise that had operated like a small market team for decades. But the team has been largely a disappointment, failing to win as many as 90 games, and making the playoffs just twice in the last four years. They did reach the NLCS for the third time in club history in 2022, but fell back to 82-80 last year, and traded star Juan Soto to the Yankees after the season.
The club still has some big stars like Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr.