As baseball is officially back on schedule, it’s time to start looking at future bets. Read to find out why the Padres to win the National League West is a great one.

Here’s why you should take the San Diego Padres to win the NL West

In a division that’s been dominated by the Dodgers and Giants over the past decade, it seems like this is the year where everything will come together for the San Diego Padres. After a strong start to their 2021 campaign, the Padres faltered late and ultimately fell apart in the season’s home stretch.

This team has unlimited potential and this is the year where it finally gets accessed fully, ultimately leading them to their first NL West division crown since 2006.

What’s different in 2022

The Padres’ big issue last year was their manager Jayce Tingler who was a big part of that late second-half collapse which cost them a Wild Card berth. In-fighting between teammates Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado certainly didn’t help team chemistry, coupled with miserable starting pitching and just a general inability to string wins together.

After reaching a season best 66-49, the Padres finished the remainder of the season 13-34 and ended with a losing record at 79-83. They took a big blow by having starting pitcher Max Scherzer snatched from them by the LA Dodgers at the trade deadline.

While the Padres didn’t make any big player moves over the offseason, they did make a huge managerial change, hiring former Oakland Athletics’ manager Bob Melvin. Melvin will bring to San Diego what Tingler couldn’t: postseason experience.

He’s a 3x Manager of the Year who has taken Oakland to the postseason six times in his decade-long tenure there, and even won a World Series as a coach on the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001.

Melvin knows how to manage winning ball clubs and the Padres couldn’t have made a better hire. He’s a manager who players can rely on and who oversaw three division titles in his time with the Athletics.
Now that Melvin is free of the difficulties that naturally come with managing the A’s, he has a great opportunity to lead this San Diego team to glory.

The Padres are absolutely stacked on offense with All-Stars in Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth, Eric Hosmer, Wil Myers and Fernando Tatis Jr. who was an MVP finalist last season.

Under new leadership, the sky’s the limit for all the Padres’ bats and this time around Tatis Jr. has a great chance to stick the landing as NL MVP.

The pitching staff was good for most of the year but fell off with the rest of the team late in the season. The rotation is headlined by 29 year old Joe Musgrove who threw a no-hitter for San Diego at the beginning of the season last year.

They also have 5x All-Star Yu Darvish and former Cy Young winner Blake Snell, who is looking to bounce back after a comparatively disappointing first season with the Friars.

Value of this Bet

Right now the Padres have 2nd best odds behind the Dodgers to win the division. The line is currently +275 for San Diego to win the division with the Dodgers at -150.

It’s not unreasonable to anticipate a fall off by the Dodgers as they’ve lost both their big trade deadline acquisition, Max Scherzer in free agency, as well as All-Star and 2020 WS MVP, shortstop Corey Seager. That’s not even mentioning the fact that Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen are still free agents and they’ll have to decide what to do with starter Trevor Bauer.

The Padres have every reason to be confident heading into 2022 as they’ve retained all their strengths from last season and have fixed the one big weak point. There really isn’t going to be a better time to take the division crown away from the Dodgers and the long-term value on this bet is too good to pass on.