This isn’t about this season. Hasn’t been, won’t be.

This isn’t about getting you to buy into these Padres.

You just can’t do it. Not as playoff contenders. If not “no way,” certainly “not yet.”

But when assessing a future commodity, buying low is advisable. And that, we can and should do with this team.


It seems clear the Padres are heading the right direction under the right man.

With a 6-3 loss to the New York Mets on Saturday, the Padres slid back into last place in the National League West. And they won’t get much higher if they can’t ever win more than two games in a row. But we ought not be invested in standings right now. Nothing we see this Padres season is pertinent to this Padres season. We must be watching for what will be.

And if you can allow your viewing of the present to not be tainted by the past, you will find Andy Green’s club is most often fun to watch. You can at least appreciate what they’re trying to do. Increasingly, you can like what they’re actually doing.

The Padres play defense close to superbly, certainly as well over the past five weeks as they did it horribly virtually the entirety of last season. The Padres’ hitters are increasingly disciplined, including some of the same guys who were not last season or the first 10 games or so of this one. They run the bases like they’re familiar with the concept. Their manager makes substitutions liberally but not wantonly. He and his coaches clearly know a bit about aligning a defense.


Players being removed are rooting for the guys replacing them, vocally and vehemently. Pinch-hitters and defensive replacements understand what they are.

There is rhyme and reason and, evidently, the participants are liking the rhythm.

“We’re having fun with each other,” catcher Derek Norris said. “It took a long time last year to warm up to each other.”

As Norris spoke prior to Saturday night’s game, Matt Kemp was riding a skateboard through the clubhouse. And if you know this team, you know Kemp is pretty important to how things go with this team. That’s not just his on-field production, but his off-field engagement. He has a lot to offer and seems to be making the effort to share his 11 seasons of knowledge. By all signs and all the telling, Kemp is enjoying himself more than he was last year. And he’s playing pretty well.


As refreshing as his eight home runs are after it took him 57 games to hit his second homer last year, is his seeming to enjoy playing the game and joking with teammates. As impressive as any of the 33 hits that have his batting average at .280, was a sacrifice fly Friday night in the first inning.

Down 1-2 against Noah Syndergaard, Kemp choked up and reached out to poke the ball to center field and score Jon Jay. It didn’t make him the National League’s MVP or qualify him for the Nobel Peace Prize. But, c’mon, he’s Matt Kemp.

“It fired me up,” Green said. “… When your offensive leader says, ‘I’m getting this run in, I’ll scratch, fight, claw, whatever I have to do ...“

Said Norris: “Guys just are playing their roles,” catcher Derek Norris said. “There are not people fighting to do above and beyond what they’re capable of doing. That’s what I think was the big problem last year – a lot of people were trying to carry the load.”


Norris is walking that walk, even when he’s striking out. It’s been a terrible start statistically for the Padres’ catcher, who went 2-for-4 Saturday to raise his average to .175. But he’s hit the ball hard a lot. And an 11-pitch strikeout to end the fourth inning Friday night was one of the more impressive at-bats you’ll see.

“When you’re not having success as far as numbers,” Norris said, “the only thing you can control is the competitiveness of your at-bats.”

It’s called doing what you can do. And it’s among the things that make you think Green is not simply spouting a cliché when he says, “Guys have bought in.”

Pitching coach Darren Balsley is careful to say he isn’t contending this Padres team isn’t more interested in winning than past versions. It’s just doing more of the things it takes to win.


“There’s less interest in what the stats are saying,” Balsley, who has been with the team since 2003, said of the difference between this year and last. “I think it’s more of a just-win approach.”

When will the winning match the approach?

Let’s catch up on how these first five weeks have gone. The Padres didn’t score in their first three games. They got to 3-8. A five-game losing streak had them at 7-15 on April 27. They are now 13-18.

“It’s been a good battle,” Green said.


It has.

To be sure, though, this team has many more battles to go before it wins a war. Bud Black was not the only problem. Green is not the solution on his own. Players are the ones playing. The Padres need more good ones of those.

This is not an end, but a means. This season may at least develop into a light at the end of a long tunnel.