MLB Insider Claims Padres Have No Real Threats in NL West

The division is the Padres to lose

Your San Diego Padres have one goal in mind: win the World Series, We're a long way from that right now, but this team is capable of accomplishing just that. However, the first order of business is to win the NL West.

For the past 10 years, only two teams have won the NL West; the Giants in 2021, and the other nine years have belonged to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants aren't the same team from 2021, and the Dodgers have digressed from the juggernaut they once were. Still, it won't be easy, but I expect the Friars to win the division. San Diego Tribunes Padres writer Tom Krasovic believes the Padres will also win the division, but he added an extra layer to it; the Padres have no real threats in the division. 

He is what he had to say about the teams in the NL West (minus the Rockies and Giants). 

The Dodgers do not look capable of approaching last year’s 111-victory total simply because they’ve lost so much talent. At shortstop they’ve gone from star Trea Turner to Miguel Rojas, who may prove he’s an ace defender but can’t be compared with Turner offensively. Sapping the offense further, Chris Taylor (14 strikeouts in 31 at-bats) hasn’t emerged from the black hole he fell into last summer and promising Gavin Lux blew out a knee last month. Their 2022 ace, Tony Gonsolin, is still working back from an ankle injury. The Dodgers are so good at developing pitchers and inducing weak contact with whoever is pitching for them, they’re my slight favorite to win the West, but this isn’t the same machine that has turned divisional races into blowouts by July.

And this is 100% accurate. The Dodgers are as good as any team at developing talent, but not in the span of one year, and where you have superstar after superstar in San Diego. LA lost a ton of talent this past winter, and they are not the same Dodger team that we've become accustomed to in the past decade. 

Krasovic gave his flowers to the D-Backs but doesn't believe they're real threats in the West. 

The Diamondbacks are a rising, entertaining team whose go-go style exploited both the Padres and the Dodgers in recent games.

The D-Backs have the talent to be great a couple of years from now,  but they are no real threat to do something serious in this league. The highlight of Arizona's season is if they are fighting for a wild card spot in September/early October. 

The Rockies and Giants aren't worth talking about in 2023. 

I wouldn't go as far as to say the Dodgers aren't a real threat to San Diego. LA still has superstars at its disposal and has the experience to make a deep playoff run. The race in the NL West will be a nail-biter, and I expect the division to be won by no more than three games.