With active investment, they have risen to the ranks of the strong team. He has not reached the top yet, but his presidential challenge continues. Fans’ expectations for them are rising as well. Can the San Diego Padres achieve their dream of winning this season?
The Athletic, an American sports media outlet, released the results of a survey of San Diego fans on the 4th (Korean time). Of the 1605 respondents who participated in the survey, 57.1% answered that ‘San Diego is moving in the right direction’.
Looking more closely, most fans responded positively to San Diego’s direction. The answer sheet consists of 5 categories: ‘very confident’, ‘somewhat confident’, ‘unstable’, ‘not confident’, and ‘not at all confident’, and 94.1% of the fans answered ‘confident’.
The reason fans are confident is because of ‘investment’. San Diego has been actively investing in strengthening its power for several years. Starting with a 10-year, $300 million contract with Manny Machado five years ago, he has signed large contracts with top players. San Diego, one of the small market clubs, began to change with the contract with Machado. Afterwards, he embraced Blake Snell and Darvish Yu in his arms and declared a challenge for the presidency.
Last season, San Diego attracted a lot of attention by recruiting a large number of top players. Ahead of the trade deadline, he hugged the likes of Juan Soto, Josh Bell, and Josh Heizer. In the offseason, he succeeded in strengthening his depth by recruiting free agent shortstop Zander Bogarts, Matt Carpenter, Adam Angel, Seth Lugo, and Honeyell Jr., who were classified as one of the Big 4. San Diego either gave up prospects or opened its wallet wide to strengthen its power. 스포츠토토
The media said, ‘What fans want is a financial investment. San Diego’s players will be making $251 million this season. When Machado joined just a few years ago, it was worth $118 million. It has surpassed a scale that was previously unimaginable,’ he said, explaining why expectations for San Diego have risen, saying, ‘Fans also expressed their concerns about the future, but not spending money is more of a problem.’
Last year, San Diego went 89-73. They finished the season in second place in the National League West division. They beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series to advance to the Championship Series. It has been 24 years since 1998. Although they failed to rise to the top by losing to the Philadelphia Phillies, it was enough to show hope that they will be able to climb to a higher place.
This season, San Diego will also challenge for the presidency. Will San Diego be able to live up to the fans’ expectations? A lot of people’s attention is focused.