Good morning from Phoenix,
The plight of a player acquired by a contender at the trade deadline is that he is expected to help a team win. Right away. A lot.
And on top of that pressure, the new guy is also trying to assimilate into a culture that has already been established, attempting to catch up on the inside jokes and traditions and figure out a way to fit in.
The player also might be batting in a new spot in the order, playing out position and/or not playing as much.
Ryan O’Hearn sat at his locker on Tuesday and answered a question about the biggest challenge he was working through five days into being a member of the Padres.
“Seeing what my role will be and what my role is going to be,” he said. “I’m still kind of figuring that out.”
Last night, his role was to start in right field so Fernando Tatis Jr. could get some rest. And then his role became to walk to the plate in the ninth inning and hit a game-tying home run and ignite a comeback to a 3-2 victory.
Ryan O’Hearn’s first homer with the @Padres ties it up in the 9th! 💪 pic.twitter.com/17OfqR1WKY
— MLB (@MLB) August 7, 2025
“Nice signature moment for O’Hearn,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “For us, man, it was a big swing.”
You can read in my game story (here) about O’Hearn’s heroics, including his thoughts on “finally” contributing, as well as how Shildt chased the victory using three of his big guns in the bullpen.
Sheets 2.0
O’Hearn was the extra that proved the imperative of the Padres’ trade deadline haul.
He was the one who personified A.J. Preller’s aim to eliminate “weak links” from the Padres’ roster in the pursuit of a championship.
But the challenge when adding three new position players is connecting all the links.
O’Hearn isn’t the only one trying to figure out his role.
The reality is he brings some of the same skillset as Gavin Sheets, who was such a big part of the Padres’ fast start to the season and had established himself as a regular part of the lineup right up to the trade deadline.
They are both left-handed, both can play the corner outfield spots and first base. They both hit right-handed pitching far better than lefties.
But Preller decided getting the player he absolutely needed from the Orioles, left fielder Ramón Laureano, was not enough. He wanted more.
So he added prospects to get the Orioles only All-Star (O’Hearn) as well. And added another prospect or two to get the Orioles to pay down both veteran’s contracts to the major league minimum.
“We like the combination with the right and left,” Preller said of O’Hearn and Laureano. “We love Sheets. Some people were like, ‘Oh, he’s like another Sheets.’ OK. I’ll take two Sheets.”
O’Hearn’s 391-foot homer over the fence in right field followed a fly ball caught on the track in the seventh inning and a ball caught just in front of the track on Monday. He hit both of those drives to right field (plus one to center field last night) just a little too near the handle of his bat.
“I’m close,” he said. “I’m just a tick off, I think. The two swings tonight, just a hair in on me and could have easily done some more damage. But I’m in a good spot. Just got to keep going, keep getting comfortable, keep grinding out at-bats and hopefully continue to contribute.”
Improved standing
The Padres moved a season-high 13 games over .500, moved into the second National League wild-card spot and got to within two games of the Dodgers in the National League West.
The last time the Padres were two games back of the Dodgers was June 13. Two weeks later, they were seven games behind. But since falling a season-high nine games back on July 3, the Padres have gone 17-10 while the Dodgers have gone 10-16.
The Padres play three games at Dodger Stadium next weekend (Aug. 15-17) and host the Dodgers the weekend after that (Aug. 22-24).
Committed to rest
Shildt cannot tell the future.
And while he has an astute baseball mind, he will be the first to say he is not a genius.
He is, however, committed to his players. And he is smart enough to know he has to keep them — especially the best ones — healthy for the long haul.
So Tatis was not coming off the bench last night.
“A day off is a day off for him,” Shildt said. “It’s not the case with every day off guy, but it was the case for him today. He wasn’t going to get called into work today.”
So O’Hearn remained in the game to bat in the top of the ninth against left-hander Kyle Backhus.
O’Hearn’s home run was his 14th of the season but his first off a left-hander, against which he was batting .232 (13-for-56) in 2025 and .199 in his career.
Tatis was in the dugout not even in full uniform when O’Hearn hit his homer.
“When you’re playing every day like (Tatis) is, “ Shildt said. “… When you’re going as hard as this guy is going and you still got to crank up and you got to do it, let’s take advantage of the full two days off. You know, he didn’t get an All-Star break, so he got a rightful day off today and will be ready to go for Friday.”
The two days Shildt referred to includes today, which the Padres have off before beginning a three-game series against the Red Sox tomorrow at Petco Park.
Yesterday was just the third time this season Tatis was not in the starting lineup.
His 110 starts in right field were tied with the Mets’ Juan Soto for most in the major leagues at the position before Soto started yesterday.
Tatis has served as the Padres’ designated hitter just twice. That is 16 fewer times than first baseman Luis Arraez, 11 fewer times than third baseman Manny Machado and seven fewer times than shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who was the DH last night. Shildt refers to the DH assignments for veterans as a half-day off.
“We’ve been able to pass the DH around a little more but have not been able to do that with our outfielders,” Shildt said before the game. “So a full day is more than earned for Tati today.”
I wrote yesterday (here) about Tatis and the give and take between his on-base percentage and slugging percentage. It was not an all-encompassing story as to why he is not hitting the ball as hard as often and not hitting home runs. There is a lot more there that might need to be unpacked in the offseason. But right now, this version of Tatis is far better than the May and early June version, and he is helping the Padres win.
Efficient excellence
A pitcher can’t necessarily try to have a quick inning.
But Adrian Morejón has become adept at enabling himself to have quick innings.
“I’m not looking for the strikeout,” he said last night after getting through the seventh and eighth innings in a total of 13 pitches. “Just throw strikes and let’s see what happens.”
What happened last night is he got himself some extra work.
Shildt did not plan to use Morejón for more than one inning last night after he worked an inning on Tuesday.
But he threw just five pitches in the seventh, getting help from an inning-ending double play on a fly ball to Laureano. So Shildt stuck with him in the eighth to face the top of the Diamondbacks’ order — switch-hitting Ketel Marte, left-handed batter Corbin Carroll and switch-hitting Geraldo Perdomo. Morejón got two groundouts and a soft line drive to right field in eight pitches.
This is a philosophical change for the left-hander, who is still just 26 years old and made his first All-Star team last month.
His stuff has always been good enough to get strikeouts, and that was a focus at times.
“Like two years ago, when I gave up a base hit in the first at-bat, I started thinking, ‘Oh, I need three strikeouts,’” he said. “Right now, it’s just pitch and pitch and pitch. Just throw strikes.”
Morejón, whose average of 13.5 pitches per inning are third-fewest among MLB’s 226 qualifying relievers, had just one pitch called a ball last night.
I have written a lot about Morejón’s growth, including this story from the All-Star game. In short, he now knows how to use his pitches, is more confident and has developed three putaway offerings — his sinker, his slider and a newly developed changeup.
“I have a lot of confidence in all my pitches right now,” he said.
Back at it, differently
Mason Miller got another shot at Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and he got his revenge with spin.
After Gurriel hit a 103.9 mph fastball from Miller to the 20th row of seats beyond left field in the eighth inning Tuesday, the first home run since at least 2008 on a pitch that fast, Miller mused he probably could have thrown a slider.
But he stopped short of saying he should have.
“I have two good pitches,” Miller said Tuesday. “At the end of the day, I’m never going to say I should have thrown the other one.”
Well, even if he wasn’t going to acknowledge second-guessing himself, he clearly did give it a second thought.
Because he struck out Gurriel on three consecutive sliders last night for the first out of the ninth inning.
Last night, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. tied the game on a 104-MPH fastball off Mason Miller.
Tonight, Miller gave him nothing but sliders for the 3-pitch strikeout 👀 pic.twitter.com/NdDcjjn9tq
— MLB (@MLB) August 7, 2025
“A new attack plan, I guess,” Miller said. “But I feel confident going out there. He got me yesterday. I got him today. So it’s baseball. That’s why we love the game.”
Miller struck out the next batter, issued a walk and then closed out his first save with the Padres with another strikeout.
After three games and 27 fastballs, Miller has thrown the five fastest pitches by a Padres pitcher in the pitch tracking era (since 2008).
None of those came last night, as he topped out at 102.5, which is tied (with himself) for 11th-fastest.
Of the 33 pitches thrown 102 mph or harder by a Padres pitcher, Mason has thrown 18 of them. Andres Muñoz threw eight pitches that fast in 2019, and Andrew Cashner threw seven that fast in 2012.
Here are the eight fastest pitches on record by a Padres pitcher.
Whoever, whenever
Back in April, May and June, it was Alek Jacob and Sean Reynolds and David Morgan brought in to try to keep deficits where they were in the hopes the offense could mount a comeback.
The last two nights it has been All-Stars Jason Adam and Morejón.
“It’s great,” said Adam, who ranks second in the major leagues with 29 holds. “We’ve got a deep bullpen, and we’ve got a lineup that we want to keep every game as close as possible, because we’re never out of it. We showed that the last couple games. So whatever I can do to help the team win, I think that’s the attitude of the bullpen. That’s the role we sign up for. … Ultimately, we all have one goal in mind.”
It was the second night in a row that Shildt employed his best relievers to chase down a win. Morejón replaced Yu Darvish to start the fifth inning with the Padres trailing by a run on Tuesday. Adam followed him with the Padres still down a run. They took the lead in the eighth and ended up winning 10-5 in 11 innings.
Last night, Adam went first, taking over for starter Nestor Cortes with two on and two out in the fifth inning and striking out all four batters he faced before Morejón began the seventh.
“It’s a sign of our deep bullpen,” Adam said. “And this isn’t an organization that, like, holds that stuff against you in arbitration or anything like that. So ultimately, all we’ve gotta worry about is trying to win ball games. That’s our number one focus. Shildty, he’s a lot smarter than any of us. So wherever he deploys us, that’s when we’re ready to rock and roll.” .
Acquisition game
All five of the players acquired at the trade deadline that are on the active roster contributed to last night’s victory.
Besides O’Hearn and Miller:
- In his first start since April 3, Cortes allowed two runs on three hits in 4⅔ innings. He did well to allow just one run in the second inning after loading the bases on a single and two hit batters.
- Catcher Freddy Fermin was 3-for-4 with a double and a bunt single.
- Laureano, who hit second for the first time, was 1-for-4 with a walk.
The Padres are batting .262 and averaging 5.2 runs a game since the trade deadline. They were batting .250 and averaging 4.1 runs a game in 109 games before the deadline. They hit .264 and average four runs a game in July.
“I think this is the deepest lineup I’ve ever been a part of, and I’ve been on some good offensive teams,” O’Hearn said. “One through nine, nobody is an easy out. I think that’s what it takes to put up runs. And you know, like you saw the last few games, even if you’re down a couple of runs late in the game, it can happen quick. It can happen like that. So, really fun to be a part of it.”
Quick release
Laureano has shown a little Jurickson Profar with his quick, strong throws from left field.
Last night, Laureano got his first assist with the Padres when he caught a fly ball by Jorge Barrosa and quickly fired to shortstop Jose Iglesias, whose relay to Manny Machado was in time to get James McCann.
“It’s a little hard to throw someone out from last field,” Laureano said. “The ones you get, you can’t be long.”
Laureano to Iglesias to Manny to throw out McCann! pic.twitter.com/p9nXWRfgeC
— Talking Friars (@TalkingFriars) August 7, 2025
Iggy with it
Bogaerts, one of the hottest hitters in the major leagues over the past 6½ weeks, kept deflecting questions about himself last night after a game in which he homered, doubled and scored the winning run.
He praised O’Hearn and the bullpen, and he said this about Iglesias:
“Iggy is probably one of the clutchest players on our team. It’s crazy.”
The single Iglesias hit in the ninth inning to drive in Bogaerts from third base was his sixth game-deciding RBI this season.
That is tied with Tatis for fourth on the team behind Machado (11), Arraez (eight) and Jackson Merrill (seven).
Iglesias has 91 fewer plate appearances than any of those three.
Tidbits
- Bogaerts’ .937 OPS since June 19 (41 games, 173 plate appearances) is third highest in the NL and tied with Laureano for 10th highest in MLB.
- Laureano’s nine hits are tied for the most in a player’s first six games with the Padres.
- Fermin is 7-for-16 with two walks in his five games with the Padres.
- With a single in the first inning Sunday against the Cardinals, Arraez got his batting average up to .300 for the first time since May 21. He is 1-for-18 since and is now batting .291.
- Iglesias started at shortstop last night for the 13th time. He has also started 13 times at third base and made 31 starts at second.
- Morejón was credited with his ninth win, because the Padres took the lead while he was still the pitcher of record. He is two wins shy of the team record held by Rollie Fingers (1980) and Butch Metzger (1976).
- Last night was the Padres’ second victory in the 47 games in which they have gone into the ninth inning trailing.
- It is a big weekend coming up for starting pitching. Not only will the Padres hope to get some more innings from their starters, they have Nick Pivetta starting Friday against his former team, Michael King returning from his 2½-month stay on the injured list Saturday and Dylan Cease looking to build on his last start (five shutout innings) on Sunday.
- Tyler Wade accepted an assignment to Triple-A El Paso after clearing waivers. Maldonado did not and was released. The Padres had talked to Maldonado about remaining with the organization in case of injury to Fermin or Díaz. Both players were designated for assignment last week to make room on the 40-man roster for the team’s trade deadline acquisitions.
All right, that’s it for me.
No game today, so no newsletter tomorrow. I will post a story on Pivetta later today on our Padres page. The next Padres Daily will be in your inbox on Saturday morning.
P.S. Update on the heat: So you know for your next visit to the desert, 115 degrees can feel more pleasant than 111. Yes, it was 115 when I made my walk from the hotel to the ballpark yesterday afternoon, four degrees hotter than Tuesday. But it was super dry, and there was a breeze. The breeze was warm but kind of pleasant.