After another shutout loss, Craig Stammen delivered a message the Padres couldn’t ignore.

“We’re not as good as we expected right now… they know it, we know it, the whole world knows it… Eventually, we’re going to break through,” Stammen said. His obvious frustration set a serious tone for the clubhouse.

The Padres are 31-22 this season, but the offense feels completely off when they get on the field. Coming into the year, the Padres’ biggest concern was the battered starting rotation and not the offense. But one-third of the way into the season, the Padres’ offense ranks last in the league with an average of .219 and has just 377 hits with an OPS of .657, which shows the overall shortcomings of the batters.

The biggest issue? Driving in runs. The Padres are 0-22 with runners in scoring position over their last three games.

These hitting failures have been clearly visible with the team getting shut out twice in the last five games. And a 3-0 shutout loss to the Phillies was the perfect example of this. In the first inning, the Padres loaded the bases with no outs and didn’t score a single run. Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill struck out before Nick Castellanos ended the inning with a groundout. And although the Padres out-hit the Phillies with 5 hits, they managed to score no runs.

In their home games, the Padres are 2-32 with runners in scoring position. And this is exactly what Craig Stammen was talking about.

The manager admitted that the offense isn’t delivering as expected. He said the team is working hard to break the slump, hoping that one big hit will finally open the floodgates. But that doesn’t seem possible right now because none of the top stars in the team’s offense have really had any impact.

Let’s start with Manny Machado. The third base All-Star has been batting with an average of .170 with 8 homers. But his OPS is just .595, showing that when crunch time arrives, Machado has rarely made any impact for the team. He is also hitting just .152 with runners on base and has only five hits in scoring position all year. All this comes down to his mechanics.

In 2025, Machado’s hard hit percentage dropped from 51.5% to 42.3%, which led to weaker contact and more strikeouts. That is exactly what happened during the Phillies game, where Machado went 0-4 with 2 strike outs. But Machado is not a single case. Franchise cornerstone Fernando Tatis Jr. has been one of the worst performers in the league.

Tatis does have a decent average of .255, but that has been of no use. He has hit no homers, and that is a major reason his OPS is .635. And it also shows because, according to Baseball Savant, Tatis has a -3 batting run value.

The lack of power has made him desperate at the plate. His chase rate has gone up from around 24% in 2025 to 29.2%, and this has impacted his at-bats. Because once a batter starts to chase pitches, his contact gets weak, and he will start to strike out more. In the entire 2025 season, Tatis struck out 129 times. Through just 50 games in 2026, he has already struck out 50 times.

But this has been the case with the whole team. The Padres in 2026 are 15th on the list with 446 strikeouts, and this is adding a lot of pressure on the pitching. So now, the Padres are having to turn to the market to add an arm to the team and hope that the batters start hitting consistently.

The Padres are looking to add a big arm before the trade deadline

The San Diego Padres are fighting for the NL West crown this season after falling short for the past couple of seasons, but with no help from the offense, the front office is looking for bullpen arms to make the pitching much better.

MLB insider Bob Nightengale reported that San Diego has shown interest in multiple experienced bullpen arms. And the names connected to San Diego show exactly how serious the organization is about building a strong team.

One of the biggest names connected to the Padres has been Aroldis Chapman. Chapman has been dominant this season with a 0.51 ERA and 12 saves. With the Red Sox struggling, the Padres hope they can trade for him. But Chapman is not the only reliever the Padres have been watching closely as the deadline comes closer.

Antonio Senzatela has also emerged as another possible bullpen option. Senzatela has an ERA of 1.13 with 3 saves and 4 wins despite the Rockies having one of the worst records in the league.

San Diego has also been linked to Josh Hader from the Astros. Although the Astros have won their recent game against the Rangers, they are falling out of contention, making a trade possible once Hader is fully healthy.

Closer Mason Miller already has 16 saves while helping the Padres win in close games. The Padres have won 7 of their last 10 games despite repeated struggles with runners in scoring position.

But the Padres have not reached a World Series since 1998. And adding another dominant reliever could become the missing piece in the puzzle to seeing the Padres deep in the postseason.