For A.J. Preller, Bob Melvin and a star-laden Padres offense, the past serves up hope.
Let's visit the the Padres' doldrums of June 1996, fellas.
Go to downtown Chicago. See manager Bruce Bochy, pained by yet another defeat. Walking near Lake Michigan, he muses to a Padres colleague that Larry Lucchino will fire him if the team doesn't pull out of its free fall.
Go to visiting clubhouses or the GM's box at Qualcomm Stadium where Kevin Towers, just eight months on the job, is running out of patience. The former Triple-A pitcher decides the hitting lineup needs more length. He will discuss a trade with the Detroit Tigers.
See a slumping Padres offense that's comparable in star talent to the current offense. The hitters bat just .221 across 23 games, while reaching base at a meager .283 clip. Collectively, they slug like backup shortstops.
But know this: the hard times ended. The hitters rebounded.
Losing 19 of 23 games didn't define the team's season.
And not only did the '96 Padres and their NL-best bullpen survive the infamous June Swoon, they nipped the Dodgers at the tape to win the West title.
The history lesson here, class, is that 19 defeats in 23 games were not a death knell to the Padres' playoff bid.
Lately the 2023 Padres have dropped 11 of 13 contests, leaving them five games under .500. Ahead are 115 games, starting Tuesday night in Washington, D.C. in the opener of a nine-game trip.
Baseball is played so differently today that it's dicey to compare star hitters a quarter of a century apart.
Let's stick to the basics. Padres stars proved resilient in '96, though an asterisk must be applied to one.
Start with the two Hall of Famers in the outfield. Though deep into their 30s, both Rickey Henderson, 37, and Tony Gwynn, 36, could control the strike zone, the former reaching base at a 41 percent clip, the latter batting .353 with 27 doubles. Henderson stole 37 bases, while Gwynn hit a Gwynnish .381 with men in scoring position.
Between them in the outfield was Steve Finley. He seemed powered by rocket fuel. Finley logged 161 games and put up 30 home runs, 45 doubles and 22 stolen bases.
Though past his prime, Wally Joyner could deal with hot fastballs. He batted .306 with men in scoring position.
No one matched Ken Caminiti knocking 40 home runs and assembling an adjusted OPS that was 36 points above league average.
If runners were in scoring position, Caminiti was as adept as the the current hitters have been inept — .387 average and 15 homers in 155 at-bats. The switch-hitter finished with 130 RBIs.
Years later, Caminiti said he used performance-enhancing steroids in his Padres career and that many other big leaguers of that era took them as well.
The June Swoon tested Towers as well.
A longtime scout with an optimist's sense of humor, Towers often quipped that his Irish luck would lift up the Padres. His June 18 trade warranted back slaps from a leprechaun.
John Flaherty took over at catcher and unleashed a 27-game hitting streak in which he batted .375. His former Tigers teammate Chris Gomez became the Padres' shortstop, where young Andujar Cedeno's growing pains demanded a change. Gomez delivered defense so reliable it was almost boring. As a bonus, he hit much better than Cedeno.
Towers knew that Tigers GM Randy Smith, a friend and former roommate in their Padres days together, was infatuated with Padres catcher Brad Ausmus. Though popular with Padres pitchers, Ausmus was hitting .181 with a .489 OPS when Towers packaged him and Cedeno (.597 OPS) for Flaherty and Gomez.
Hmm.
Padres catcher Austin Nola, much-praised by Padres pitchers, is batting .146 with a .431 OPS. Though center fielder Trent Grisham is producing several levels above Cedeno in that he owns two Gold Gloves and contributes a healthy number of walks and home runs, he has batted .185 with a .631 OPS and 201 strikeouts over his 197 games dating to the start of 2022.
Should Preller look to improve the offense at those positions?
Serving as ballast for these Padres are the lengthy track records of their star hitters Xander Bogaerts, Juan Soto and Manny Machado, the latter sidelined by a hand fracture. Fernando Tatis Jr. makes it three stars in the current lineup. Off to strong offensive start, he also is playing an excellent right field.
The offense's struggles with runners in scoring position have been well-chronicled and extend to Jake Cronenworth, a two-time All-Star who has batted .158 with a .211 slug rate in 38 at-bats to go with nine walks and two sacrifice flies.
The Padres intend to show the worst is behind them.
Their ancestors of '96 began the turnaround with a four-game sweep in San Francisco's Candlestick Park, where four different starters homered in the opener.
From there, the team never came close to matching the numbing futility of 19 defeats in 23 games.
