The San Diego Padres made one significant mistake that has created a noticeable gap on the roster, leaving the team somewhat scrambling to fill it.
The Padres have a roster full of stars up and down the lineup and rotation, however, left field is an obvious weak point that stems from the team not making it a priority in free agency.
Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report, in a story highlighting a regret that every team has from the offseason, highlighted the overarching weakness at left field for the Padres.
"On the one hand, at least the Padres didn't re-sign Jurickson Profar to a massive raise in advance of his 80 games suspension for PEDs," Miller wrote in the story.
"On the other hand, though, they never did anything to address his departure in free agency, unless you count signing Jason Heyward to a $1M deal as doing something. Heyward is one of seven Padres who has spent at least some length of time playing left field this season, which has been a black hole in the lineup with a cumulative OPS barely north of .500."
Heyward has been below replacement level on the season so far, with a -0.4 WAR and a terrible 42 wRC+, which is incredibly low as far as run creation goes. His level of play so far has left him as soemthing of an automatic out for a lineup that has several high level offensive producers.
If San Diego does not find a reason upgrade over him, that could make the different in a series against the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Padres have the ability to really push the Dodgers and even upset the reigning World Series champs, but they cannot afford to have such a glaring hole on their team.
For more Padres news, head over to Padres on SI.
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