2016 San Diego Padres

 The high spending franchises get a bad wrap. Teams like the 2004 Red Sox or the 2024 Dodgers spent a fortune to bring in the players from outside the organization to win their titles. After their 90s dynasty, the Yankees opened up the checkbook instead of rebuilding to keep their title window open. If you want to win in baseball, a successful tactic is to spend money on the big free agent names. It's a good move, but by no means is it automatic playoffs just because you spend more money.

The San Diego Padres decided in 2015 that they were gonna spend the money and trade the prospects needed to compete for a title. And while that season didn't pan out very well, they doubled down in 2016. Among the finishing touches management felt needed to make this season a success was putting Andy Green in charge. Spirits and hype was high going into opening day...where they were destroyed in historic fashion by the Dodgers 15-0. Then they lost 3-0 and 7-0 to not only get swept in their opening series of the season against a division rival, but they got completely shut out in the entire series.

The season started off bad and only got worse. By the trade deadline, it was obvious the team wasn't destined for October despite all the prospects they traded away and money they spent to put this team together. It was time to blow it up and trade the expensive names off while promoting what few young talent remained to see if the future had any hope. Even their trades weren't without mockery, as the trade of Drew Pomeranz shed light on the shady practice of GM AJ Preller where he did not release accurate medical info to the league about his players. Preller was suspended and the team took yet another L over it.

The Padres limped to a 68-94 finish to come in dead last in the NL West, 23 games behind the Dodgers. They would proceed to post losing seasons until the 2020s, seeking to put this disastrous effort behind them and build again fresh.

James Shields was the face of San Diego's big push. And his trade to the White Sox in June signaled the "abandon ship" mentality. His season didn't improve in Chicago either, as his combined season gave him a tie for the MLB lead of 19 Losses.
The end of Shields in SD brought in a glimmer of future hope, though. 

Erik Johnson was one of the two players acquired in the Shields trade. Not exactly an earth shattering pickup, especially when it's a pitcher who gives up homers on his own chart. The other player to join Johnson on the trip to California was Fernando Tatis Jr, who you may have heard made a more notable impact to help the team in the future.

The prominent Starting Pitchers of the season. Pomeranz was an all star, but the rest were bad all around. Perdomo gets to hang his hat on the 9 Wins he had in 2016, leading all Padres pitchers. Despite being traded, Pomeranz led the team with 115 Strikeouts.

All star Rodney started the year as Closer and attainted 17 Saves...then after his trade Maurer took over the duties and saved 13 of his own.

Relievers and other pitchers on staff. Some of the bullpen wasn't too shabby...a shame the starters didn't usually give them many leads to protect.

The lone offensive all star. Myers was the team leader with 28 Home Runs, 94 RBI, 99 Runs and 155 Hits.

Other regulars. Not a lot of good on-base hitters, which explains why they were so bad. Jankowski led the group with 30 Stolen Bases.

Bench players. Always fun to do bad teams with an assortment of the dreaded 4 on-base players. Nick Noonan is a head scratcher. I've never seen a middle infielder with such a stark contrast of a perfect +5 at 2B, but a complete opposite +0 at SS.

When your season is a complete failure, you might as well call up the kids in the minors and see what they've got. The Padres had three options that also were featured in the Futures Game. Asuaje and Margot are what you'd expect, but Renfroe is one of those special cards where he only played in 11 games and had 35 At Bats, but the man made the most of it by putting up the kind of stats that create a monster card such as his.