San Diego Padres Rumors

Established in 1969 as one of four MLB expansion teams, the San Diego Padres have been winners of two National League pennants but have yet to hoist the World Series trophy. The team plays at Petco Park in San Diego and is part of the five-team NL West Division.

The Padres saw little success in the 1970s, finishing last place their first six season and having a losing record for their first 13 seasons in a row. They saw two future Hall of Famers come up as homegrown players in the 1970s in Dave Winfield and Ozzie Smith. However, Winfield left the Padres as a free agent after the 1980 season and the team traded Smith to the Cardinals before the 1982 season, so neither was a part of the team’s first taste of success.

That taste came in the early 1980s. After finishing with a .500 record of 81-81 in both 1982 and 1983, the Padres experienced their first winning season in 1984 when they won their division for the first time and went all the way to the World Series. They lost to the Tigers in five games in the Fall Classic, but young outfielder Tony Gwynn cemented his status as the face of the franchise that season, hitting .351 in 1984 and finishing 3rd in National League MVP voting. Gwynn would play his entire career for the Padres and finish with 3,141 hits, good for 18th on the all-time list.

The Padres would go on to make it to the World Series one more time in Gwynn’s tenure on the team, but they fell in the 1998 World Series to the Yankees. After a couple of NL West Division wins but little playoff success in 2005 and 2006, the Padres look to build around a new core of young players and chase that elusive World Series dream into the next decade.