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The Juan Soto Trade Has Helped Both The Yankees And The San Diego Padres

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The Juan Soto Trade Has Helped Both The Yankees And The San Diego Padres


The San Diego Padres are a month into life after All-Stars Juan Soto, Blake Snell and Josh Hader. Things are just fine.

The Padres are again in contention in the NL West, and while they lost big bat Soto in the December trade with the New York Yankees, not only are they more balanced after adding starters Dylan Cease and Michael King but also they doing it economically.

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It started with general manager A.J. Preller’s decision to move Soto, which while it seemed inevitable on one level was met with some raised eyebrows.

“At the time, you probably see it (trade) the other way, I’m not going to lie, because I didn’t see up close what these guys were capable of doing.” Fernando Tatis Jr. said, alluding to Cease and King.

“But the more I keep seeing them, they bring the team to a whole different level. We are a really good baseball team. We are a team that can do the big things. This year we are proving ourselves we are having success doing the small things. With that balance and that pitching.

“There is a long road to go. It’s a matter of if we can keep doing the small things and keep ourselves in balance.”

The Padres made the smart fiscal play in trading Soto, who a month into his $31 million walk year is bashing his way toward a top-tier free agent deal, perhaps in the $50 million per year range.

Soto, in his age 26 season, will be the prize in a market that is expected to be as robust as it has been with recent young superstars including Shohei Ohtani, whose 10-year $700 million free agent contract signed last winter is the highest in major league history, even at its $461 million adjusted value due to his extensive deferrals.

At the same time, San Diego already had dedicated big money to run producers Manny Machado ($350 million), Fernando Tatis Jr., ($340 million) and Xander Bogaerts ($280 million), all locked up through at least 2033.

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The Soto deal enabled them to assemble potentially one of the best rotations in the NL, with Cease and King joining Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish as a foursome capable of cranking out quality start after quality start.

The Padres acquired King and pitching prospects Ian Thorpe, Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez in the seven-player deal with the Yankees. They then flipped Thorpe in a package to acquire Cease from the Chicago White Sox.

The moves also helped them save a boatload of money while replacing Snell. Cease and King will make a combined $11.5 million this season, about a sixth of what Snell will get after signing a two-year, $62 million free agent deal with San Francisco that includes a opt-out provision after this season.

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Both Cease and King have one more year of arbitration eligibility, which will make them quite affordable again in 2025. Each is three years younger than Snell, who has two more Cy Young Awards than he has complete games in a nine-year career.

Musgrove is signed through 2027 after agreeing to a five-year, $100 million deal last August. Darvish, signed in 2023, is due $83 million through 2028.

Which means that the Padres are still spending money, but the cost of doing business in the wake of their offseason decisions has decreased drastically.

Their $161 million active payroll is just below the major league average, and it is lower than NL West rivals the Los Angles Dodgers ($228 million), the Giants ($197 million) and defending NL champion Arizona ($167 million).

Completing the makeover, closer Robert Suarez has converted all eight of his save chances while taking over the ninth inning from Hader, whose five-year, $95 million free agent deal with Houston was the largest for a closer. Suarez signed a five-year, $46 million contract last season that includes an opt-out after 2025.

Hader made it clear to the Padres that he preferred only one-inning stints, and he pitched more than one inning only once in his 1 1/2 seasons with them. Suarez had two four-out saves and one five-out save in his first 10 appearances this season.

“He’s embraced his role, and … wow,” Tatis said of Suarez. “He’s blowing doors to everybody. Hitters know his fastball is coming and they still can’t hit it.”

Suarez has thrown his 98 mph fastball 87 percent of the time this season, according to FanGraphs.

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Cease, who was second in the AL Cy Young voting in 2022, is 3-1 with a 1.82 ERA in his first five starts this season after winning 3-1 at Colorado on Monday, when he gave up one and struck out eight. He has given up 11 hits in 29 2/3 innings, is averaging 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings and leads major league qualifiers in opponents’ batting average (.113).

King was roughed up in a 7-4 loss at Colorado on Tuesday, dropping to 2-2 with a 4.11 ERA, but took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his previous start at Milwaukee. He is building on a 2.33 ERA he had in nine nine starts with the Yankees after being moved into the rotation in mid-August.

Tatis had one word to describe the two newcomers.

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“Nasty,” he said.

Musgrove, Cease and King were among the top 15 in the NL in innings pitched entering Tuesday, an indication of what they have meant to the team.

“If were are going to go out and grab quality innings and be able to help the team compete, let’s start there,” San Diego manager Mike Shildt said. “That’s a big portion of those guys’ responsibilities that take the ball at the beginning of the game. Both of those guys have done that very, very well.

“They do the things that allow you to get deep in games. They hold runners. They control counts. They have multiple pitches they can throw multiple times for strikes. It’s also clearly helpful to our bullpen to keep those guys fresh as well.”



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San Diego, CA

Arizona Diamondbacks end 3-game losing streak, pound San Diego Padres | TSN

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Arizona Diamondbacks end 3-game losing streak, pound San Diego Padres | TSN


PHOENIX (AP) — Ketel Marte and Joc Pederson homered to back Ryne Nelson’s return to the mound and the Arizona Diamondbacks snapped a three-game losing streak Sunday, defeating the San Diego Padres 11-4.

The Diamondbacks roughed up Padres starter Matt Waldron (1-4), who gave up eight runs (seven earned) and eight hits in three innings.

Marte’s two-run homer and Corbin Carroll’s two-run single came in a four-run first inning.

San Diego, which had its four-game winning streak end, came back with three in the second on Jackson Merrill’s two-run homer and Kyle Higashioka’s RBI double against Nelson (2-2), who was activated from the injured list to make the start.

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But Arizona answered with two more runs in its half of the inning on RBI hits from Jake McCarthy and Christian Walker.

Pederson’s homer, a two-run shot to right, came off Jhonny Brito, who relieved Waldron in the fourth when Arizona had another four-run inning.

McCarthy had three hits to lead the Diamondbacks, who finished with 13 hits. Arizona went 2-4 on its homestand.

Nelson lasted five innings, throwing 99 pitches. He allowed eight hits and four runs, walking one and striking out three. He last pitched April 18 at San Francisco, when the right-hander took a line drive off his pitching elbow.

To make room for Nelson, Arizona optioned left-hander Brandon Hughes to Triple-A Reno.

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PADRES ADD INFIELDER

A day after acquiring Luis Arraez from Miami, San Diego called up Donovan Solano from Triple-A El Paso. The 36-year-old hit .318 in 12 games with El Paso after being signed to a minor-league deal last month.

The Padres are Solano’s sixth big-league team. He hit .282 in 134 games for Minnesota last season. San Diego optioned Eguy Rosario to El Paso in a corresponding move.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said before the game that closer Paul Sewald (left oblique strain) will be going with the team on its upcoming road trip and could pitch as soon as Tuesday. Alek Thomas (strained left hamstring), sidelined since the first week of the season, also could return this week. Thomas is on a rehab assignment at Reno this weekend. … Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had a scheduled day off.

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UP NEXT

Padres: RHP Yu Darvish (1-1, 3.45) starts Monday against the Cubs in Chicago.

Diamondbacks: Off Monday. Open a three-game series Tuesday in Cincinnati. Zac Gallen (3-2, 3.38) returns to the mound for the first time since April 26, when he left a start against Seattle with a strained right hamstring.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

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UC San Diego increases long-term campus population estimate to 96,300

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UC San Diego increases long-term campus population estimate to 96,300


With UC San Diego’s campus population already exceeding projections made for a decade from now and further big increases expected, the university is updating its long-range development plan with an objective of creating more housing for students on the west end of the La Jolla campus.

The current plan, completed in 2018, was projected to take the campus through 2035. The revised plan would go through 2040.

The 2018 plan estimated the 2035 campus population at 65,600, including 42,400 students and 23,200 employees. The revised estimate, based on enrollment and staffing trends, projects a total of 96,300 students and employees by 2040.

However, UCSD’s student enrollment already has reached 43,381 as of last fall, according to a campus profile on the university website, with roughly 40,000 employees, according to the University of California.

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UCSD attributes the higher-than-projected growth to “demand for higher education and systemwide priorities to increase enrollment.”

A key driver for the plan update is “expanding access to students seeking a high-quality education” in accord with priorities set by the state, the UC system and UC San Diego over the past decade, according to UCSD spokeswoman Leslie Sepuka.

“It requires ongoing investments in infrastructure, classroom space as well as faculty and staff to enhance the student experience,” she said.

In March, a scoping meeting was held to go over the update and take feedback from residents.

“The university is committed to increasing availability of housing for students,” Sepuka said. “The goal is to provide on-campus housing to up to 65 percent of all students and continue to make progress toward a four-year undergraduate housing guarantee at below market rates for comparable units.”

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The campus currently houses a little more than 50 percent of its students with a two-year housing guarantee. Most of the student housing is on the west side, so proposed changes include building additional housing and replacing aging facilities.

The university projects a roughly 30 percent increase in new campus development, including more than 21 million square feet of new buildings on the west campus, a 5 million-square-foot increase from the 2018 plan. The revised plan also lists 567,000 square feet of development “nearby,” meaning not on campus.

No changes are proposed for the associated Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

UCSD says it already has added more than 11,000 new beds for student housing in the past 10 years, which it calls the largest such residential expansion in the country.

According to the university, the UC Board of Regents requires every campus in the UC system to have, and periodically update, a long-range development plan.

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The plan “defines how a campus will accommodate anticipated enrollment and the faculty and staff needed to support it. A [long-range development plan] is only a guide; it does not commit the campus to specific projects, as it must provide flexibility for changing conditions.”

Not everyone is convinced the expected changes are good.

Though area resident David Lebowitz said he feels the university “does a tremendous amount of good in terms of its research output and providing so many Californians with a high-quality education … I am also concerned about UC San Diego’s record of failing to complete student housing projects on time, the impact on the student experience of living in an increasingly crowded environment that is a perpetual construction zone, and the impact on traffic from such a dramatic increase in campus population.”

“The growth in staff and faculty is likely more impactful from a traffic standpoint, as nearly all will be commuting,” Lebowitz said. “The traffic impact from student growth is more difficult to predict and could depend in large part on how much on-campus student housing is actually built and what restrictions may be placed on student parking on campus.” ◆

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A&M squashes San Diego, advances to Super Regional – The Battalion

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A&M squashes San Diego, advances to Super Regional – The Battalion


The No. 17 Texas A&M men’s tennis team faced off against the No. 18 San Diego Toreros at the Mitchell Tennis Center in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, May 4. The Aggies managed to weather through the lightning delay midway through the match and defeat the Toreros 4-2.

The Aggies earned the right to play the Toreros after defeating the Rice Owls in a perfect sweep on May 3. The win also saw the Maroon and White move to the second round of play for the 17th year in a row.

A&M continued its doubles success from the first round, as it won the first match in lopsided fashion when the Frenchman combination of senior Raphael Perot and freshman Tiago Pires squashed San Diego’s team of graduate Savriyan Danilov and sophomore Lambert Ruland, 6-1.

Equalizing the score in doubles play, the San Diego duo of sophomore Oliver Tarvet and redshirt sophomore Stian Klaassen defeated the team of junior JC Roddick and freshman Lathan Skrobarcek at a rather fast pace, 6-1.

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Then, earning the doubles point for the Aggies, the Turkish and the Italian were to the rescue. The No. 14 duo of junior Giulio Perego and sophomore Togan Tokac defeated the Toreros’ No. 90 duo of redshirt senior Sacchitt Sharrma and junior Iiro Vasa, 6-3.

With a 1-0 lead, the Fightin’ Farmers kept the momentum rolling as junior Luke Casper secured the victory in two sets over San Diego’s Sharma, 6-3, 6-1.

Down 2-0, the Toreros proceeded to turn the tables, winning the next two matches. Klaasen was the first to put his name in the win column after taking down Pires in two sets, 6-4, 6-1. Tying things up at 2 for the Toreros, Danilov defeated Tokac in two sets, 6-2, 6-4.

With things looking up for San Diego, a lightning delay stopped both teams in their tracks. A&M benefited from the stop of play, as Perego proceeded to come out and make the score 3-2 after defeating Ruland in three sets, 7-3, 7-6 (10-8).

With the duel and a ticket to the Super Regional on the line, No. 42 Roddick clutched up for the Aggies. He came back after losing the first set to San Diego’s No. 85 Vasa, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

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A&M came out fast and did not let a stubborn San Diego squad stop it from coming away with the win. A&M will now move onto the Super Regional and compete on May 10 or 11 against Texas in Austin.



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