Stammen Figuring Out New-Look Padres Lineup

Padres Lineup Should Look Different from Last Season

Once is Interesting, Twice is a Pattern

On both Friday’s Cactus League opener and Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Stammen had the same four players atop his starting lineup, in a rather unusual order when compared to last season’s Padres.

1. Xander Bogaerts
2. Jackson Merrill
3. Manny Machado
4. Fernando Tatis Jr.

Is this Stammen experimenting, or does it hint at a change for good? It’s likely that he’s simply prioritizing giving hitters bound for the World Baseball Classic (Bogaerts, Machado, Tatis Jr.) at-bats before they leave for the tournament. 

In speaking to Padres beat reporter AJ Cassavell, Stammen emphasized that it’s simply a consideration he’s taking into account, not an indictment of what’s to come. That being said, that statement came before Sunday’s game, where Stammen used the same order for those four again. So it seems likely this is where San Diego’s trending, but why?

Bogaerts Leading Off

Xander Bogaerts’ tenure with the Padres has been, to say the least, contentious thus far. After signing an 11-year, $280 million contract with the team in 2023, he has largely underperformed in the eyes of fans.

Despite the issues the Friar Faithful have had with Bogaerts, he has actually been an above-average player, finishing out his first three seasons in San Diego with a .271/.328/.404 slash line. Beyond that, Bogaerts has been an elite defender his whole career, owning a .979 fielding percentage. 

Obviously, he’s not the offensive player he used to be in Boston, who batted .309 with 33 home runs in 2019. But he’s still someone who can get on base and wreak havoc on the basepaths for the opposing team, coming off a career-high 20 stolen bases in 2025 despite missing some time with an injury. 

Merrill in the 2

Last year, manager Mike Shildt continued to put Luis Arráez in the second spot behind Tatis Jr. despite his troubles throughout the year. There was sound reason behind that. 

Ideally, a team wants their second spot to spray the ball around the field, and (if the leadoff hitter got on base) get them into scoring position and/or not ground into a double play. It’s that second reason that Merrill is a great fit here.

The average batter (with 500-plus plate appearances) grounds into roughly 10-15 double plays in a season (Manny Machado led the Padres last year with 16). In Merrill’s entire two-year career with San Diego, he grounded into a total of six. If he continues that streak of putting the ball in play, he’ll do well in his new role.

Manny Hitting Third

There’s not much to say for Machado here, who would be more or less returning to the third spot in the order after spending a majority of the 2025 season (and his career) batting either third or fourth. 

And Batting Cleanup is…Tatis Jr.?

This is the other end of the kicker that is Bogaerts leading off–Tatis Jr. then moves down to the four spot. It’s a strange sight, to be sure, but not as unorthodox as it may seem. 

Picture this: it’s the first inning, and one of the first three batters gets on base, bringing Tatis Jr. to the plate. He steps up, hits a bomb out of the park, and now the Padres are already up two runs before the other team knows what hit them.

And that’s not as wild as it initially may seem. Tatis Jr. is only five years removed from the 42-homer campaign he had in 2021. Despite the controversy surrounding his power hitting that season, he seems poised to rise to that level again in 2026. 

However, the lineup shakes out for San Diego come Opening Day, the Padres have no shortage of options, and Stammen has shown a willingness to be creative if it means winning comes along with it. Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see how this trend progresses over the next few weeks of spring training for the Friars.