Padres takeaways: Leadoff pays off, depth matters and the experience factor

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SAN DIEGO — The first and only other time the San Diego Padres won four consecutive games to open a season, Yuli Gurriel did not yet exist. He does now, of course, and the 2025 Padres, like the 1984 Padres, are 4-0.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised,” Gurriel, born in June 1984, said through interpreter Pedro Gutiérrez. “If you see this roster, you know there’s superstars on this team, but the fact that they’re united, they play together, they work together, that’s been very surprising to me.”

Perhaps to a newcomer, it should be. But this early-season version of the Padres closely resembles the second-half-of-2024 Padres, a glamorous yet gritty group that surged into October by going 43-20. After a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves, here are a few takeaways on San Diego’s fast start to a critical season.

Across his first four big-league seasons, Fernando Tatis Jr.’s sprint speed hardly wavered. Here were his yearly averages, as measured by Statcast:

• 29.3 feet per second
• 29.3 feet per second
• 29.2 feet per second
• 29.3 feet per second

He never ranked lower than 38th fastest in the majors.

In 2024, while playing with a stress reaction in his right thigh bone, Tatis’ average sprint speed dropped to 28.4 feet per second. A full 125 players recorded a swifter average than Tatis, who still managed to earn his second All-Star selection.

“Last year, I was standing on one leg,” the right fielder said. “But you can really see how healthy I am right now.”

Healthy enough that late in spring training, manager Mike Shildt, Tatis and reigning National League batting champion Luis Arraez began to discuss shaking up the top of the lineup. Then, in a Cactus League game on March 22, Tatis led off for the first time all spring — and the first time since a 2024 Cactus League game. Arraez returned to the leadoff spot for the Padres’ final two exhibitions (with Tatis returning to the No. 2 hole), but it might have been a bit of misdirection.

Since the regular season started, Tatis has led off every game. His numbers: a .467 average (7-for-15), a .529 on-base percentage, five runs, his 12th career leadoff home run, three stolen bases, one strikeout and two walks, both drawn during Sunday’s 5-0 shutout of the Braves.

“Our leadoff hitter really set the tone,” Shildt said. “I loved the at-bats. I also loved the patience. You know, he’s an aggressive player. You never want to take the aggression away. But he’s staying within himself. … Just fantastic at-bats at the top of the lineup. It’s a real presence somebody has to face at the start of the game.”

so tuff pic.twitter.com/WSgskZQ0iL

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 29, 2025

No one would have blinked if Arraez, who also is back to full health after offseason thumb surgery, retained the leadoff job. But Tatis, running like it’s 2019-23 again, brings a multidimensional dynamism to the start of a game.

Arraez, a contact specialist who isn’t a power or speed threat, owns a career .323/.364/.416 slash line when batting first. Tatis went into Sunday with a .311/.375/.601 career line when batting first. He very well could spend the whole season atop the lineup. The Padres finished last year 14th in the majors in stolen bases; they rank second after four games. Tatis, who was San Diego’s primary leadoff hitter when he stormed the league as a rookie, is largely responsible.

“We talked about it — me, (Shildt) and Arraez — just to see (how) we can put the best version of ourselves out there,” Tatis said. “Just good conversations all around, and we decided to go that way, and it’s paying off.”

Arraez, meanwhile, is 0-for-13 to start the season, having gone hitless in four consecutive games for the first time since 2021. The Padres aren’t worried. The last time Arraez started a season 0-for-13, the year was 2024.

Sunday, the Padres first baseman and new No. 2 hitter lined out twice, producing expected batting averages of .690 and .610. In another at-bat, he adeptly moved Tatis to third with a groundout. Tatis proceeded to score on a double by Manny Machado.

“I got zero concern about Louie,” Shildt said. “Louie’s a three-time batting champion. Louie’s gonna be just fine.”

Depth remains a long-term concern for the Padres, particularly on the pitching side. Yu Darvish (elbow inflammation) continues to increase the intensity of his catch sessions, but he isn’t close to coming off the injured list. Neither is fellow starter Matt Waldron, who is still in a rest phase after straining an oblique in spring training. Relievers Bryan Hoeing (shoulder strain) and Sean Reynolds (foot stress reaction) are also a ways away.

Still, the first series of the season went a long way toward easing any short-term concerns. After Michael King’s and Dylan Cease’s starts were cut short by elevated pitch counts, Randy Vásquez supplied six scoreless innings in one of the finest performances of his young career. Nick Pivetta, the Padres’ main offseason acquisition, debuted Sunday with one hit in seven innings. Over four games, the bullpen amassed 16 innings of five-hit, one-run baseball. The Braves were held scoreless over their final 22 innings on offense.

“Top to bottom, everybody’s doing their job,” Pivetta said. “It translates on the baseball field, but it really shows up in the little things, in the daily work. … You know, the conversations being had, and everybody’s just kind of feeding off each other.”

In February, Pivetta joined the Padres on a four-year, $55 million contract. The deal, which includes an opt-out after two years, is heavily backloaded. It could turn into a bargain if Pivetta continues to do his job as well as he did it Sunday. The right-hander attacked the strike zone, working quickly and needing only 82 pitches. For the first time in his career, he threw seven shutout innings while allowing no walks and one or fewer hits.

“That’s what I like,” center fielder Jackson Merrill said. “Throw it in the zone, and let them hit it. If they hit it, they hit it. Some teams are just gonna be raking. You saw the Yankees this weekend; they couldn’t miss a barrel. Sometimes it happens. But a lot of the time, you throw it in there, you get them to swing, get themselves out. That’s the best baseball. It’s fast baseball. It’s good for us on the hitting side.”

Speaking of the hitting side, the Padres have gotten at least one knock from every position player who has started a game, except Arraez and left fielder Jason Heyward. Even catcher Martín Maldonado, 38, has a pair of singles. Maldonado, a career .203 hitter, batted .119 for the Chicago White Sox last season before he was released in July.

“Especially in this lineup … from that ninth spot, you try to play the little game,” Maldonado said. “You try to have good at-bats, quality at-bats, move the guy over, bunt the guy over, put the ball in play.”

Heyward’s status as a regular bears watching. The 35-year-old remains a solid defender and a respected clubhouse presence, but he is 0-for-10 with three strikeouts. He struck out twice Sunday before he was replaced by Brandon Lockridge, who doubled, stole third base and scored a run. The Padres have another left-field alternative in veteran Connor Joe, who was optioned to Triple A at the end of spring training because, well, he had options left.

Cease made his final appearance in a White Sox uniform last March, racking up eight strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings against the Cincinnati Reds. The Cactus League crowd in attendance included a sizable contingent from the Padres front office, including president of baseball operations A.J. Preller, who pulled the trigger the next day on the blockbuster that brought Cease to San Diego.

Cease knew it likely would be his final outing for Chicago. “It’s hard to say for sure, but it was such a dominant (performance) that I felt like something might happen,” he recalled over the weekend. For his dominance, he partially credited the catcher behind the plate that night.

“He’s a good game caller, for sure,” Cease said of Maldonado. “He does his homework, and that’s really all you can ask for. He’s got a lot of experience on top of that.”

Maldonado has lasted this long in the sport despite his bat and because of his defensive acumen and veteran leadership. His presence on the roster doubles as an indictment of Luis Campusano, who is back in Triple A. It also speaks to certain things the Padres value: preparation, attention to detail and a baseball junkie’s approach. Maldonado, who has said this could be his final season, is viewed by some in the game as a future manager.

Maldonado caught Cease’s season debut Friday. Then, showing the kind of savvy that might play in a pregame news scrum, the majors’ oldest active catcher offered praise for the pitcher and an honest assessment of Cease’s new changeup.

“The changeup was really good in spring training. I think today wasn’t as good,” Maldonado said. “It still got some swing-and-misses, a couple strikes. But overall, I think that pitch has developed really good. I think there’s a lot of opportunity with some hitters to throw the changeup, and I think the more comfortable he gets, the better that pitch is gonna get.”

A day later, Maldonado ushered Vásquez, 26, through a bullpen-preserving performance.

“I feel very comfortable just working with him,” Vásquez said through Gutiérrez. “He’s a veteran. He has experience. He knows how to guide me working with him in the bullpen, working with him in the game. The results speak for themselves.”

And the results will determine if the likes of Maldonado, Heyward and Gurriel stick with the Padres. (Gurriel, the oldest active position player in the majors, provided a pinch hit RBI single in Saturday’s 1-0 win. “He doesn’t look 40,” Padres hitting coach Victor Rodriguez said recently.) For now, their presence on the roster is a reminder of certain things that resonate with Shildt and his coaching staff.

“We’re gonna win a lot of different ways,” Shildt said. “Some nights, it’s gonna be the bigger things, but almost always, the little things lead to the bigger things.”

(Photo of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Brandon Lockridge: Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)

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