And then there was one. Unfortunately for San Diego, that one is the Padres.

With the Chargers’ relocation to Los Angeles, the Padres stand alone as San Diego’s only major-league sports option.

This is just as sad as it sounds, but it also raises a few questions:

— Will the city embrace its baseball team like never before, with fans rallying around their own Boys of Summer as a way to maintain the city’s dwindling sports relevance?

— Will the team see this as an opportunity to grab a captive audience, open up the wallet and try to field a legit contender?

— Will San Diego sports fans just say to heck with it and find other ways to occupy their time?

— Will the Padres follow the Chargers and eventually find a new home?

Each scenario seems plausible, but also improbable. In other words, the baseball status quo is likely the most realistic outcome of all this — and that's probably not a good thing for San Diego sports fans.

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Once upon a time — 1984 being that most recent time — San Diego was a typical major-league sports city. Though its teams often floundered, the city had NFL, NBA and MLB representation, with the Padres breaking the usual losing mold and making the World Series in the last year all three major-league franchises called the city home.

But the NBA’s Clippers left the city for Los Angeles before the 1985-86 season, and now the NFL’s Chargers have made the same trek.

As the seemingly perpetually rebuilding Padres go into 2017, you can forgive San Diego sports fans if they don’t feel enthusiastic about the only game in town.

The Padres haven’t had a winning season since 2010, and they got progressively worse during the past three seasons, even after a series of high-profile trades that proclaimed “Win now!” but ultimately did nothing to advance the team’s fortunes.

The 2016 squad finished last, with a record of 68-94. The team hit a collective .235 and carried a team on-base percentage of .299, both dead last in the National League. The team's .689 OPS ranked next to last in the league. The Padres' hitters’ 1,500 collective strikeouts also were second-to-last. At times, the lineup struggled mightily to score runs.

On the mound, San Diego's 4.43 team ERA ranked in the bottom half of the league, and Padres pitchers allowed the fourth-most home runs.

On offense, the bright spot was Wil Myers, who led the team with 28 homers, 94 RBIs and 3.2 wins above replacement (WAR). Among pitchers, Drew Pomeranz was the lone starter with a winning record, 8-7, though he posted a strong 2.47 ERA.

Apart from that? Well ...

It was yet another forgettable season in a string of forgettable seasons. It’s what San Diego has come to expect from its baseball team.

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As such, the Padres haven’t been a huge draw in recent years. The team saw an attendance dip of more than 108,000 from 2015 to 2016, and finished around the middle of the pack (eighth of 15) in National League gate numbers last season. That was actually a slight improvement after not finishing any better than 10th in attendance since 2007.

Of course, winning usually solves all problems. But winning hasn’t been trendy in San Diego. And it’s not likely to be anytime soon. That takes money, of course, and the Padres just got rid of a bunch of money.

San Diego was 29th in the majors in payroll last season, ahead of only the Rays. That’s because it dumped some large contracts on players (James Shields, Matt Kemp, etc.) who didn’t bring the quick success that was hoped for when the team had the league’s 11th highest payroll in 2015. It seems unlikely the team would take big risks so soon after those failed win-now experiments.

So, in the wake of the Chargers’ exit, what’s likely to happen in 2017 is that die-hard Padres fans will continue to be die-hards, casual fans will continue to be casual fans, and previously uninterested people might take a slight interest given the lack of other options. As for a potential Padres relocation, that seems highly unlikely. At least not anytime soon. "Las Vegas Padres" doesn't sound good anyway.

Spring training is about a month away, but there's not much reason for optimism. On-field expectations are low, as they always seem to be.

Given the city’s likely-to-linger grumblings over the Chargers’ exit, that doesn’t bode well for an exciting sports summer in San Diego.

Beyond that? Who knows?

But at least the weather's nice.