Photo: Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire

Part of a series of articles previewing the defensive performance of all 30 MLB teams by asking the question … are they good? To see the full series, click here.

2024 Defensive Runs Saved Rank: 24th

Team Strengths

The Padres have considerable variance on this roster when it comes to their defense. We’ll give Fernando Tatis Jr. the benefit of the doubt and list him as a strength, but there were times during his second season in right field when he looked like he was new to playing the position. Tatis had a fantastic first year in right field with 29 Runs Saved and a Fielding Bible Award in 2023. But last year, the mistakes were more frequent and he slipped to 0.

Manny Machado could also be a strength, but he’s a bit removed from his last season with double-digit Runs Saved at third base (2017). Nonetheless, he’s had positive Runs Saved there in every season but one, so he’s a strength, though we don’t necessarily know how good he’ll be.

Lastly, shout-out to Jason Heyward, the all-time leader in Runs Saved in right field, who for now is going to play a lot in left field. Heyward has aged, but still has skills. He had 5 and 4 Runs Saved, respectively, the last two seasons.

Team Weaknesses

The team’s weakness last season was that it didn’t have any players who could go get the ball better than most other MLB players. Their most Runs Saved at a position last season was Michael King’s 4 at pitcher.

They don’t necessarily have bad defenders anywhere (Xander Bogaerts and Luis Arraez are a little below average, but not a lot), but they’re lacking a great defensive player if Tatis doesn’t do what he did two years ago.

Other Things To Know

Which version of Elias Diaz will show up behind the plate? Diaz has had seasons of -21, -15, and -16 Runs Saved at catcher, with those last two coming in 2022 and 2023. He fixed some issues with his pitch framing and bumped all the way up to 5 Runs Saved last season. No idea how we should project him in 2025. Luis Campusano could use a similar bump. He totaled -17 Runs Saved as the Padres part–time catcher last season.

Are the Padres A Good Defensive Team?

There’s a world in which Tatis saves 20 Runs and Machado saves 10, and most of the other regulars total 0 to 5. In that world, they’d be in the top 10 of the sport. But can you count on that? Don’t know.