I will say, if nothing else, the San Diego Padres have had one interesting offseason.

I really believed that after surprising baseball by winning 90 games, finishing just two games behind the San Francisco Giants and seeing a close to 200,000 attendance increase, the Padres would capitalize on their 2010 by adding to their team for 2011. Instead, well, I have really have no idea what they are doing.

For every one step forward, they have taken two steps back. The latest examples of this? Their two middle-infield acquisitions this week.

 

After a couple of weeks of going back and forth with the Tampa Bay Rays, the two sides finally completed a trade that sends SS Jason Bartlett and a PTBNL to the Padres for minor leaguers Adam Russell, Brandon Gomes, Cesar Ramos and Cole Figueroa. Then the Padres signed 2B Orlando Hudson to a two-year, $11.5 million contract.

Let’s start with the Bartlett trade.

What on Earth are the Padres doing on this one? I don’t care if the four guys the Padres gave up are the Barry Horowitz’s of the Padres’ minor league system. There is no way I am giving up four bodies for Bartlett. That just can’t happen.

Bartlett’s 2011 season was less than stellar. If you take out Bartlett’s 2009 season, he has averaged a .284/.343/.369 hitting line with three home runs throughout his career. Well, that was pretty much in line with what Bartlett produced in 2010.

Bartlett hit .254/.324/.350 with four home runs in 135 games. Outside of his low average, everything else fell into place.

GM Jed Hoyer had to ask himself if his 2009 season was an aberration or if Bartlett had a really down year because he seemed to be hurt all the time. It’s a fair question, but I think 2009 was just an aberration. Apparently, Hoyer did not.

That’s the only explanation can I think of because not only did the Padres give up four players for Bartlett, but they are going to have to pay him somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million in arbitration in 2011. For all that, the Padres might have been better off just bringing back Miguel Tejada on a one-year deal earlier in the offseason before he signed with the Giants.

I will get into the Rays side of things and the four players they acquired in a separate post.

Now on to the Hudson signing.

I have always liked Hudson as a player, but I don’t see how Hoyer can justify giving him a two-year deal.

In 2008, Hudson hit .305/.367/.450 with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and in the offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers only gave him a one-year deal. In 2009, Hudson hit .283/.357/.417 with the Dodgers and still only managed to get a one-year deal with the Minnesota Twins.

So now Hudson has his lowest OPS of his career in 2010 with the Twins, only played in 126 games, and gets a two-year deal? Makes zero sense to me.

I can understand the Padres thinking with the acquisitions of Hudson and Bartlett. Their goal is to win with pitching and defense in 2011. Hudson and Bartlett should form one of the best double play combinations in baseball.

However, the goal of the game of baseball is to score more runs than your opponent. I have a hard time seeing how the Padres are going to able to outscore their opponents in 2011. I also have a hard time trying to figure out why the Padres would give up four players for Bartlett and why they would give Hudson a two-year deal.

I guess it’s just another confusing day in the offseason of the San Diego Padres.

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