Padres getting more from more parts of lineup

MINNEAPOLIS — The Padres have long been dependent on Manny Machado.

When he does well, they do well. When he does not, they do not.

Since 2020, when the team around him became good enough for it to matter, the Padres are 121 games above .500 when he drives in even a single run and 67 games below .500 when he does not.

Also in that span of nearly six seasons, they are 112-24 when he drives in multiple runs.

There had never in his seven seasons with the team been a 20-game stretch in which Machado had an OPS below .556 and the Padres had a winning record.

Until now.

He is batting .205 with a .553 OPS over the past 20 games, and the Padres are 12-8.

This is not about Machado, which is the point.

This is about a Padres lineup that has been turned upside down and inside out and into an actual representation of the “one through nine” mantra.

“The team is a lot deeper,” Machado said. “It’s a lot longer.”

It was not that long ago that the Padres’ hopes were pinned on the so-called Big Four.

“Now,” Xander Bogaerts said, “it’s like you have a Big Nine.”

Flip-flopped

Luis Arraez is batting .211 since Aug. 3, and the Padres are 14-9.

Bogaerts is batting .196 since Aug. 10, and the Padres are 9-7.

Jackson Merrill hit .220 with .633 OPS in his final 11 games before being shut down with an ankle sprain, and the Padres went 7-4. They are 6-4 since he has been out.

We are talking about the players who have hit second (Arraez), third (Machado), fourth (Merrill) and fifth or sixth (Bogaerts) in the majority of the Padres’ games this season.

It turns out that president of baseball operations A.J. Preller did not so much eliminate his lineup’s weak links at the trade deadline as much as he made sure there were enough strong links.

The semantics do not matter. That the chain has not broken is what is important.

Now, you never know when a 24-inning scoreless streak is going to pop up. The Padres had never gone that long without scoring in 2024 until doing so ended their season in the National League Division Series.

But what Ramón Laureano, Ryan O’Hearn and Freddy Fermin have brought to the lineup since joining the team at the start of August is undeniable and has lessened the chances of such a lapse.

Certainly, that can be discerned to a certain extent by noting that Laureano is batting .315 with a .968 OPS and O’Hearn .269 with an .815 OPS and that Fermin hit .364 with an .885 OPS in his first 12 games.

But it is where that trio has fit in the lineup and what that has done to the lineup that has helped the Padres average almost a run more per game in August than in the first four months of the season.

“The impact is, you’ve got a guy hitting seventh with a .930 OPS, has the ability to hit a grand slam in the first inning,” Jake Cronenworth said, referring to Laureano. “… It makes us complete.”

Yes, Laureano is hitting seventh. That turned Cronenworth into the major leagues’ only regular No. 8 hitter with a .363 on-base percentage for the season.  And while Fermin has cooled down, he continues to find himself in the middle of rallies with his ability to bunt (and his .133 batting average over his past 10 games is not the worst the Padres have gotten out of their No. 9 hitter this season).

O’Hearn producing while batting fourth has allowed Gavin Sheets — who hit second, fourth or fifth in 62 of his 93 starts before the trade deadline — to bat exclusively sixth or seventh in August.

Sheets has gotten his time lately because Merrill is on the injured list. And whenever Merrill returns, it is likely going to be down in the order, which is where he excelled last season.

“We always knew we had talent at the top of the lineup,” hitting coach Victor Rodriguez said. “Now what happens is we added some players, and they pushed the lineup down.”

Getting it done

With Laureano, Cronenworth and Fermin primarily making up the bottom third, the Padres lineup is no longer so top heavy.

With Jose Iglesias and Elias Díaz guest starring and various pinch-hitters making cameos, the 7-8-9 spots have actually been the marquee portion of the offense at times this month.

Such as Tuesday, when the bottom three spots in the order drove in six of the seven runs and had five of the 12 hits in a 7-6 victory over the Mariners.

A five-run first inning included a double by Fernando Tatis Jr., outs by Arraez and Machado, a walk by O’Hearn, an RBI single by Bogaerts, a walk by Sheets and Laureano’s grand slam. And the Padres’ two-run seventh inning began with back-to-back doubles by Sheets and Laureano, an RBI single by Cronenworth and Laureano scoring when Fermin laid down a bunt on a safety squeeze.

“Some games, the bottom wins for us now,” Bogaerts said. “It’s a different dynamic.”

There were also the four straight victories earlier this month against the Red Sox and Giants, in which the bottom third hit .369 with two home runs, two doubles and seven RBIs while the top two-thirds of the lineup hit .281 with 10 doubles and seven RBIs.

When Tatis drove in Cronenworth in Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Mariners, it was Tatis’ ninth RBI in his past 14 games. Eight of those RBIs were him driving in another player (meaning without him hitting a homer), the most he has had in any 14-game stretch this season.

That is because there are men on base when he is hitting.

Since Aug. 1, the bottom of the order has hit .251 with a .734 OPS compared to the .217 average and .602 OPS that portion of the lineup had through the season’s first 110 games.

The bottom third’s surge actually began five games before the trade deadline, when catchers Elias Díaz and Martín Maldonado were alternating in the No.9 spot and the other two spots were generally filled by some combination of Cronenworth, Jose Iglesias and Bryce Johnson. In those five games, all victories, the bottom three hit .288 with a .784 OPS.

But it is the introduction of Fermin and Laureano and O’Hearn that is the difference.

And the bottom of the lineup contributing has actually enhanced the top of the lineup’s production, even with key players struggling.

The top six spots in the order are batting a combined .265, one point better than before the trade deadline, and those spots have a combined .736 OPS, which is 13 points better.

Again, that is with Machado slumping.

“Our big boys know they’ve got to be big boys,” manager Mike Shildt said. “But I’ve got to tell you that, you know, if you’re not getting a lot of consistent contribution from the bottom of the lineup and you know that there’s basically two innings to two-plus innings being not really productive, those other six innings — those other three to four at-bats (by the top of the order) have more magnitude. And it’s like, ‘I better do something now because …’”

Machado said there is “always pressure” on players at the top of the order. But he did agree with Shildt that there is more belief in “passing the baton.”

He paused for a couple minutes to talk before he headed to the batting cage one afternoon earlier this week, but Machado wasn’t in the mood to offer much insight on the new lineup dynamic.

He does know this:

“We’re winning games,” he said. “That’s all. Everyone hits, we’re winning games. … To get where we want to go, it takes everyone. We have a group that is contributing one through nine.”