Padres News: Manager Bob Melvin Has Stopped Looking at the Standings

Is San Diego's skipper throwing in the towel?

The San Diego Padres are in the midst of one of the most disappointing seasons in the MLB this year. 

After being expected to contend with stars Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis, Jr., Manny Machado, Blake Snell, and Josh Hader in tow, it's been anything but that for the Padres in 2023. 

Instead, the team with the third highest payroll in the sport is languishing in mediocrity, and watching their playoff hopes dwindle by the day.

The chances for them to make the postseason are almost less than minuscule at this point, with the Padres having just a 1.8 percent chance to play meaningful October baseball, per Fangraphs. 

The standings are a source of chagrin for the Friar faithful, and manager Bob Melvin isn't looking at them with about a month left in the season. 

“There’s 30 games left. There’s really no reason to even look at the standings at this point in time,” manager Bob Melvin told reporters Sunday after the Padres were swept in Milwaukee for the first time in 20 years. “It’s just keep playing. Keep playing and hope something breaks that we haven’t been able to do basically the entire season.”

per Dennis Lin of The Athletic

As far as the "hope something breaks" part of Melvin's statement, the team's inconsistency has been a hallmark of their disappointing campaign. 

The chances that the Padres finally find the consistency that they've been lacking the entire year are near zero at this juncture, and it seems as if San Diego's skipper is resigned to his team's postseason-less fate. 

It's an incredible fall for the Padres, and they're clearly not the team that reached the NLCS just last season. 

Contenders they are not, and with Snell and Hader set to be free agents this winter -- and Juan Soto due to follow them into the market after 2024 -- significant changes look to be on the horizon for one of the sport's biggest failures.