Good morning from Phoenix,
The Padres began spring training figuring they might need to trade for a left fielder by the end of July.
They tried 10 guys at the position over the season’s first four months before making the move to go get their man at Thursday’s trade deadline.
Ramón Laureano has so far made the wait worth it.
“It feels good,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said of being able to write Laureano’s name in the lineup all five games since he arrived.
There was too much that went on in last night’s 10-5 victory in 11 innings over the Diamondbacks to say Laureano was the hero. But his contributions were significant enough that we might look back on this game as the one in which he became an indelible part of his new team.
Laureano tripled and scored the tying run in the second inning. He doubled home two runs to break a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning. And his single drove in the third of the Padres’ five runs in the 11th inning.
“He feels like he’s played here a lot of years,” Luis Arraez said. “It’s fun to watch him play baseball. He has a lot of energy, he plays hard.”
Laureano finished 3-for-6 last night and is 8-for-18 since going hitless in four at-bats in his Padres debut on Friday.
“The second day I felt pretty normal,” Laureano said. “For me, there are already so many things in the last couple years. So for me, it is what it is, really. I’m not trying to really impress anybody. So just play some baseball and play hard.”
Almost exactly two years ago, the A’s designated Laureano for assignment. He was released by the Guardians last May, spent two weeks in Triple-A and finished the season with the Braves and signing with the Orioles in February.
Here is an outline of Laureano’s journey to the Padres:
Laureano’s .364 average is sixth-highest by a player in his first five games with the Padres. His four extra-base hits are tied for third most.
He said he thinks all he has been through, having to hop from team to team the past three seasons, has helped him not get tripped up by the pressure and other adjustments that often get the better of players who join a new team at the deadline.
“I can’t lie to you on that one,” he said. “For sure that helps.”
Not so super yet
It has been a bit bumpy in the earlygoing for the bolstered bullpen.
In Saturday’s 8-5 loss to the Cardinals, Jeremiah Estrada let the go-ahead run score after inheriting that runner on first base in the fifth inning. On Sunday, Adrian Morejón made a blowout interesting by allowing three runs in the ninth inning without recording an out before Robert Suarez came in to lock down the save in a 7-3 victory.
It seemed last night that Suarez was on his way to getting another save opportunity after Morejón, Jason Adam and Estrada each turned in a scoreless inning and Mason Miller got the first two outs in the eighth with the Padres up 5-3.
Then, after Miller walked Geraldo Perdomo, Miller and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. made history when Gurriel hit a home run on a 103.9 mph fastball.
104 MPH IN
107.1 MPH OUTLourdes Gurriel Jr. ties it! pic.twitter.com/l6KNSIooSK
— MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2025
It was the fastest pitch in the major leagues turned around for a homer since at least 2008, when StatCast began tracking pitch speeds.
It was quite an at-bat by Gurriel, who hit a two-run homer earlier in the game off Yu Darvish.
Miller began the matchup by throwing a pitch right down the middle at 102.5 mph that home plate umpire Sean Barber called a ball. Gurriel then watched a slider for a strike and fouled off a 101.7 mph fastball.
That was the first of four straight fouls. The final three came on a 103.6 mph fastball, a slider and a 104.1 mph fastball, which was the fastest pitch thrown by anyone in a Padres uniform since at least 2008. Miller then threw the fateful fastball in almost the same spot as the previous one, just about two balls more toward Gurriel.
“I felt like he might have been looking for the slider,” Miller said. “But I think maybe I could have gone back to it again.”
However, no one with 104 in their pocket second-guesses that selection.
“I have two good pitches,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, I’m never going to say I should have thrown the other one. Just ultimately could have executed a little bit better. And that’s what it comes down to. That fastball out over the plate, maybe he fouls it in the stands. But up (and) in, that’s the spot that he’s able to get to.”
How did Gurriel catch up to the pitch?
“It’s something that just happened,” he told reporters in the Diamondbacks clubhouse. “You know, it’s not that easy. I just reacted to it.”
Smooth Suarez
There was a lot of talk when Miller was acquired last week about how he and Suarez would be used.
Shildt has referred to the situation as “fluid,” but he has stuck with the incumbent in the closer role so far and been rewarded.
Suarez, who has covered more than an inning just three times this season after doing so 10 times last year, took down 1⅔ innings last night.
He entered the game with two on and one out in the ninth inning in place of Wandy Peralta and stranded both runners by getting a fly ball out and then striking out Diamondbacks lead-off batter Corbin Carroll.
He went back out in the 10th with the automatic runner on second base and, after the Padres intentionally walked Ketel Marte, ended the inning on a shallow fly ball by Perdomo and a double-play grounder by Gurriel.
“Robert has been that guy for us,” Shildt said of the MLB saves leader. “… He has more than done his job at the end of the game.”
Shildt said Miller could be the closer tonight if Suarez can’t go. He did throw more than one inning, which can be extra taxing. But his 15 pitches were actually nine fewer than Miller threw.
Arraez’s D
Arraez might have saved a run (and possibly the game) in the sixth inning when he leaped to snare a high throw from Xander Bogaerts and came down and made a swiping tag to complete an inning-ending double play.
He also saved Bogaerts from a second error in two innings by catching a low and wide throw in the seventh. And he and pitcher David Morgan made a nifty play for the second out in the 11th inning.
Last night was the latest example of how watching Arraez play first base every day leaves a different impression than what the metrics suggest.
The defensive metrics do not value Arraez as a first baseman.
He ranks 20th among 21 qualifying first basemen with minus-6 outs above average. He is tied for seventh with one defensive run saved. And he is 19th, at minus-10.3, in FanGraphs’ Defensive Runs Above Average rankings.
“I would encourage you to look at the defensive metrics for Luis since the first of June,” Shildt said. “And, at least the ones we look at, you’re going to find a guy that’s in the top five to 10 defensively. And he’s really trending in a great, great spot. … He’s played his tail off defensively.”
The in-house metrics the Padres consider are proprietary, and they rarely share them publicly. And the available defensive metrics do not value first basemen to the point of actually devaluing them. Even those well-versed in how those metrics are compiled often disregard the numbers for first basemen.
But Arraez has taken to first base this season in a way he never did before. Even early this year, he said was a true second baseman. But that job is Jake Cronenworth’s for good reason, and Arraez decided he wanted to be better at the position he was assigned.
He is on the field for early work more than any other regular infielder. By far. He takes ground balls, often hit by Shildt, and works on picks with infield coach Tim Leiper.
“Mike Shildt helped me,” Arraez said. “He’s the man who helps me get better every day. … We have a routine. Leip too, but Mike is the one who helped me there. He got me right.”
I quoted Manny Machado talking about Arraez’s defensive improvement a few weeks ago.
The guy Arraez helped out last night has noticed too.
“I actually thought toward the end of the game — after he made the klast play, the throw to first with Morgan — it seems like he’s embracing (first base) a little more,” Bogaerts said. “You see him working a lot with Shildty. You see it translate into the game. It’s fun to see.”
Heart and hustle
We have talked here before about it being worth your while to take an extended period in a game and focus on Arraez when he is on the field.
He is the Energizer Bunny if the Energizer Bunny was always smiling and handing out hugs and pats on the rear to teammates and opponents.
So it made sense that Arraez was announced yesterday as this year’s winner of the Heart and Hustle award for the Padres.
“I love this sport, I love my job,” Arraez said. “It’s an honor, especially here because we have ‘Tati’, Bogey, everybody plays hard every day.”
This is the third time in four seasons Arraez has been his team’s Heart and Hustle winner. He was the Twins’ honoree in 2022 and the Marlins’ honoree in 2023.
Each team’s honoree is voted on by a panel of former players and given to players who “exemplify a true passion for the game and who best embody the values, spirit, and tradition of the game.”
The overall winner, voted on by fans and former plays, is announced in November.
Sears optioned
Turns out, the decision was made quickly.
I wrote yesterday that JP Sears could be optioned, but I speculated the Padres would at least want to see what Nestor Cortes looked like in his debut today and would probably give Sears another shot.
But with the impending return of Michael King to the rotation and needing coverage in the bullpen, the Padres optioned Sears to Triple-A and recalled reliever Sean Reynolds yesterday.
Sears, acquired from the Athletics along with Miller, made his first start for the Padres in Monday’s 6-2 loss to the Diamondbacks. He allowed five runs on 10 hits in five innings.
It could be his last start for them until next season.
The left-hander has to remain in the minor leagues for at least 15 days, with the possible exception of his being recalled to replace an injured player.
It is possible but not likely the Padres go to a six-man rotation at least once during a stretch of 13 games in 13 days that begins Aug. 15.
“It’s on the table,” Shildt said. “But I’ve always been one to say that you have to give up something to get something. So everybody that wants to go to a six-man rotation and pounds that table may be a little naive to how bullpens really operate over a 13-game stretch. You don’t want to go down a bullpen arm over 13 games and then start to throw guys in areas that they don’t need to belong and then create even more conversation.”
Speaking of which …
Cortes’ immediate impression was similar to everyone else when considering the loaded Padres bullpen.
“I was joking with my friends from back home, like, all you gotta do is get to the fifth inning and possibly the fourth and then just turn it over,” he said on Sunday.
Yeah, not now.
The situation the Padres bullpen is in is no joke. The relievers need a break.
The Padres went out and got Miller with the idea of not only being better equipped to shut down offenses late in games but to provide some more down time for all the relievers.
But it’s like the Padres’ starters took the talk about the bullpen’s strength to heart.
After Nick Pivetta went seven innings in the first game after the trade deadline, no Padres starter has gone longer than five innings in the four games since.
That included Darvish making it through four innings last night.
Now, Darvish was removed after 72 pitches and the Padres down 3-2 because their highest-leverage relievers were rested.
While Adam, Estrada, Morejón, Miller and Suarez all worked last night, they were mostly efficient. All of them, with the possible exception of Suarez, can almost certainly go again today.
But the bullpen has had to cover 18⅓ innings over the past four days, and another short outing by Cortes tonight would be detrimental.
King set
The Padres are not ready to say which day it will be, but King is in line to start Saturday or Sunday against the Red Sox.
“It was long,” King said of his 2½ months on the injured list with a nerve impingement near his right (throwing) shoulder.
King gave credit to the Padres’ medical and athletic training personnel for guiding his recovery but offered the biggest praise to someone else.
“I have to give a lot of props to my wife,” he said, “because while pregnant and delivering a baby, she kept me sane throughout the whole situation when it should be the opposite.”
Sheila King gave birth to the couple’s first child in mid-July. King stayed back in San Diego during the Padres’ road trip after the All-Star break and threw a simulated game against minor-league hitters at Petco Park on July 28. He then made one rehab start, Sunday in Triple-A.
He threw 61 pitches in 3⅓ innings, rejoined the Padres here Monday and declared himself fit for duty.
“I’m ready to go,” he said. “I’m confident in my ability. I wouldn’t put myself or the team at risk if I wasn’t.”
King ranked fifth in the National League in ERA (2.59) and strikeouts per nine innings (10.35) and sixth in WHIP (1.02) when he went on the IL.
Tidbits
- Jackson Merrill ran his RBI streak to 10 games with a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning. That is two shy of the team record held by Jason Bartlett (2011), Steve Finley (1996) and Sixto Lezcano (1982). Merrill has 11 RBIs during the stretch.
- Bogaerts was 2-for-5 with a home run and walk. He is batting .338 with a .909 OPS over the past 40 games.
- Manny Machado and Braves first baseman Matt Olson and second baseman Ozzie Albies are the only players who are not primarily a designated hitter to have started every one of their team’s games this season. Olson and Albies have made all 112 of their starts in the field. Machado has started 101 games at this base and last night served as DH for the 13th time.
- Machado was 3-for-5 with a double and a walk last night and is batting .444/.492/.667 during a 13-game on-base streak.
- Machado’s 29 doubles are one less than he had all last season.
- Laureano did not have any triples in 259 at-bats for the Orioles this season. He has two in 22 at-bats for the Padres.
- Cronenworth was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. He has a .429 on-base percentage in 22 plate appearances this month.
- The Padres’ nine walks tied a season high. Their other such game was in a nine-inning victory over the Phillies on July 2. All of the Padres’ walks came in the first nine innings last night.
- The Padres’ five-run 11th inning was their fifth with at least that many runs in the past 18 games. They had six such innings in their first 96 games.
- While it was not a high-leverage situation, Morgan continued to impress in his rookie campaign by retiring all three batters he faced in the 11th on a total of 11 pitches. The 25-year-old right-hander has a 1.80 ERA in 26 appearances (30 innings) since being called up May 25.
- Last night’s victory was the fifth time in the past 16 games the Padres have won by five or more runs. They did so 11 times in their first 98 games.
- The Padres improved to 5-4 in extra-inning games. They led MLB with a 10-2 record in extras last season and were second-to-last in the majors with a 2-12 record in ‘23.
- You can read Jeff Sanders’ story (here) on season ticket prices being going up again in 2026.
All right, that’s it for me.
Talk to you tomorrow.
P.S. I don’t think it is unreasonable to think that at some point, the temperature just doesn’t matter.
And I would have thought maybe 108 degrees was that point. That was the temperature when I walked from my hotel to the ballpark on Monday. That was hot.
Then it was 111 for my walk yesterday.
And, let me tell you, it was a big difference.
The good news is, it is supposed to be even hotter today, so I will be able to continue my quest to discover when it is so hot that it just doesn’t matter.
