So, who are these work-in-progress San Diego Padres?

Are they last season’s offseason spenders who gobbled up run producers Matt Kemp and Justin Upton, along with veteran pitcher James Shields? Are they the team erasing payroll that dealt Craig Kimbrel, Joaquin Benoit, Jedd Gyorko and Yonder Alonso with Shields whispers pending?

Are they committed – truly committed – to being contenders? Or are they rebuilders in the shadows, unwilling to utter the “r” word outside Petco Park offices? What they will be depends on how the rest of the offseason transpires.

What it feels like: This team isn’t sure what it is. The Padres, at least the version we see as of mid-December, find themselves stuck in the middle.


We know the identity of the Arizona Diamondbacks as baseball peeks ahead to 2016. The team puttering around the middle of the National League West shelled out $206.5 million to bag Zack Greinke, the Hope Diamond of free-agent pitchers. A few days later, the D’backs scooped up All-Star arm Shelby Miller. They’re all-in.

We know the deep-pocket Dodgers will be the, well, the deep-pocket Dodgers – Clayton Kershaw, Adrian Gonzalez, Joc Pederson and all. For good measure, the team already cut checks for free-agent starter Hisashi Iwakuma and secured second baseman Chase Utley while reportedly chasing Reds rocket launcher Aroldis Chapman.

We know the Giants will be, well, the Giants. They’ve still got Madison Bumgarner and have locked down Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford through 2021. They stopped at the ATM, just in case, to pay pitcher Jeff Samardzija $90 million.

The Padres? At this point, they’re a little of this, a dab and dash of that.


The Diamondbacks, one of the NL West teams the Padres should be planning to chase down, signed Greinke and Miller. The Padres, meanwhile, picked up Jon Jay.

There’s no doubt that Jay, a left-handed bat, provides outfield options. But he’s coming off the worst season of his career, hitting .210 with one home run and no steals in 79 games after wrist surgery.

The big asterisk in all of this: The team hasn’t really made any season-defining moves yet. The Padres stayed church-mouse quiet a year ago from July until this point in December, when general manager A.J. Preller uncorked five deals in less than 48 hours — including the trade for Upton and finalizing the Kemp deal.

The Padres still need a shortstop, still need corner outfield help, still need bankable pitching. The team’s identity, as the first half of December melts off the calendar and lone All-Star Justin Upton drifts into the free-agency mist, is a head-scratching number of catchers (4).


Preller might still have surprises hiding up his roster-tweaking sleeve, but this feels like a team gingerly tip-toeing at the edge of the full-reboot cliff. That seems oddly counter to what a top decision-maker expressed to the Union-Tribune’s Dennis Lin in July.

According to Padres lead investor Peter Seidler: “Our expectations are going to be high going into the next year as well as 2017 and every year beyond. It’s not in our DNA to have a fire sale and to tear down …”

“I understand why some franchises in baseball and in other sports will tear down to the bone and try to get high draft picks with the hope that in three years you can build up. We think we’re smarter to put all of our energy into competing year after year after year.”

It’s hard to convince fans that competing looks like a lineup without Justin Upton and without Alonso, the only everyday bat from last season to hit over .271 (.282). If it looks like a rebuild and smells like a rebuild, then it’s probably a rebuild.


That can be OK – just look at the Kansas City Royals, Chicago Cubs and others – but a tougher marketing sell in a city whose next sniff of the postseason will be the first since 2006. Selling patience could be prudent at this point, but a tough sell nonetheless.

The Padres, undoubtedly, want to put on a stellar show when the All-Star Game arrives in July at beautiful Petco Park. Part of putting on a memorable show, though, is trotting out hometown players for fans to embrace.

This stuck-in-the-middle sense of the Padres is magnified with an ASG-related question. If you had to name a 2016 All-Star for the Padres, who would it be? The rest of the West returns obvious contenders, including the Dodgers, Giants and Paul Goldschmidt with all-in Arizona.

Late, surprising, future-shaping moves from Preller and Padres brass could be looming.


Right now, though, it seems like a team hunting for a road map.

bryce.miller@sduniontribune.com

On Twitter: @Bryce_A_Miller