With the regular season now over, some musings before the playoffs start tomorrow:

• Finishing with 90 wins so that it was the first time in franchise history to have back-to-back 90+ win seasons and make the playoffs back-to-back for the second time in franchise history is pretty good. I wasn’t expecting the team to win 90 games at the beginning of the season but with the trades made, you expected them to be good (60-49 at the trade deadline so 30-23 after) so finishing with 90 wins feels about right. They ended at a season 18 games above .500 (which they also achieved earlier in the season when they were 74-56).
• Still disappointing that they had the poor stretch in late August and early September (losing 11 out of 16 games). Even playing a little better at .500 (8-8) would have given them a legitimate shot to win the division or at least finish as the 4 seed to host the wild card round at Petco.
• The lost of Ramon Laureano and Jason Adam are both big and it’s unfortunate that they happened to freak injuries. Considering how many left handed batters the team has, Laureano provided a good right handed complement. With Adam, you could be less dependent on your starters (and outside of Nick Pivetta, they’re all pretty inconsistent and shaky) as well as have multiple high leverage relievers available every day to keep guys fresh. I get it with the playoffs there are more off days but still it was the reason they got Mason Miller to build the super bullpen.
• I see the Wild Card series as being pretty even with the Chicago Cubs and going either way. Cubs losing Cade Horton is a big blow and Kyle Tucker is just back from injury. Cubs have the better starting pitching still and more slug while the Padres have the better bullpen and you hope the hitters can hit like they’ve been doing the past week, albeit this was hitting at home where the Padres are much better (52-29 at home versus 38-43 on the road).
• Looking forward to the playoffs and hopefully the Padres can make a long run. It is true that anything can happen in the playoffs as there’s so much randomness there and role players can get on a run like Trent Grisham did for the Padres in 2022.