The San Diego Padres keep dropping games, and Manny Machado knows they can’t survive like this. On Tuesday, Machado hit a home run, but he still couldn’t save his team from an early four-run hole. It was just another offensive collapse for a lineup that keeps disappearing when it matters most.

The struggles are so bad that even Machado is questioning how long they can stay afloat.

“I kind of doubt that. 1. We can’t sustain it. 2, I have confidence in everybody in this room that we’re going to be right where we need to be,” MLB insider Marty Caswell quoted Machado when he was asked if the Padres can keep winning while the offense slumps. His doubt is not about his teammates, but a reality check that the bats need to wake up.

The Padres have hovered near the bottom of MLB rankings, featuring a team batting average of around .219, an OPS of .662, and a wRC+ of 92, meaning they are performing slightly below league average as an overall unit. Meanwhile, their pitching staff ranks 12th with a solid 3.85 ERA, keeping them in games despite the total lack of run support.

Then there are high-profile hitters like Fernando Tatis Jr., Machado, and Jackson Merrill, who have simultaneously struggled to find a rhythm. For instance, a prolonged home run drought for Tatis and sub-.600 OPS stretches for Machado and Merrill have severely limited the middle of the lineup’s run-producing capabilities.

Despite Tatis’ home run drought, the Padres still rank 18th in scoring homers (55), which contributes one-fourth of their total runs scored (214). This suggests they simply cannot hit when it actually counts. They were 0-22 with runners in scoring position in the last three games entering Tuesday. If they don’t fix this by the trade deadline, their playoff window is going to slam shut.

No wonder the Padres’ manager Craig Stammen issued a wake-up call to the clubhouse. “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.

The Padres’ lineup proved their manager right on Monday in their shutout loss against the Phillies. In the first inning, all bases were loaded for the Padres with no outs, and still the inning ended without a single run! Machado and Jackson Merrill were struck out, and Nick Castellanos ended the inning with a groundout.

The only point that both Machado and Stammen agree on is that the team will rebound. The Padres have done it in the past. Back in 2023, the Padres struggled to gain momentum through the first five and a half months. They erased their deficits with a red-hot eight-game winning streak from September 13 to September 22. During that run, they took down rivals the Dodgers before sweeping both the Athletics and the Rockies.

The Padres clubhouse is hoping to repeat the same, and amid all these woes, the only silver lining is the trade rumors around the franchise.

The Padres are expected to go hot this trade deadline

The Friars’ bet on their existing offense is expected to continue for now. Reason? The majority of the trade rumors around them are related to their pitching staff. The biggest one of them is Tarik Skubal.

“Now that it’s becoming inevitable that the free-falling Detroit Tigers may have no choice but to trade two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal at the deadline, rival executives believe the bidding will come down to four finalists that not only can afford the remainder of his $32 million contract, but will also be willing to give up prized prospects: The Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres,” MLB insider Bob Nightengale said.

The Padres previously showed their aggressiveness during the Mason Miller trade. They gave up Leo De Vries, one of their top prospects at that time. Currently, they have two players in MLB’s top 100 rankings. Ethan Salas is at No. 52, and Kruz Schoolcraft is at No. 92. So, for Skubal, the Padres could go all in.

No sluggers are rumored with the Padres till now, which makes us believe that this same lineup would take the team forward. Let’s now see if Machado’s clubhouse could bring a change, or his doubt comes true.