The San Diego Padres are in a neck-and-neck battle with the Los Angeles Dodgers at the top of the NL West with just a month to go in the regular season, but a lot of focus is on getting healthy before the playoffs. The Padres have a lot of their key players in the lineup at the moment, but they are still waiting for the return of shortstop Xander Bogaerts.
Bogaerts has been out of the lineup recently due to a foot injury and has not played since August 27, when he fouled a ball off of his foot and broke a bone. While he is expected to miss extended time, the Padres are still expecting him to be back and ready to go for the postseason, via Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
“The Padres sustained a huge blow when veteran shortstop Xander Bogaerts broke a bone in his left foot when fouling off a pitch, but the Padres believe he be back just before the postseason,” Nightengale wrote. “Bogaerts, who had played in all but three games, was hitting .303 with an .835 OPS since June 19.”
That leaves the Padres without their everyday shortstop for most of the rest of their playoff push as the regular season winds down, but they still have some other answers to go to at that position in the meantime.
Jose Iglesias is more than capable of filling in at shortstop, while utility infielder Jake Cronenworth is also capable of taking reps there if he needs to.
The Padres will miss Bogaerts' bat even more than they will miss his glove in the field while he is out, as that is where the former Boston Red Sox star really thrives and has made his mark during his career. This season, he has 10 home runs and 49 RBIs and has been an on-base machine during the second half of the season, allowing some of San Diego's big bats to step up with runners on base.
When Bogaerts does get back on the field, the Padres will have one of the most fearsome lineups in all of baseball and will be a tough out for any pitching staff in October.
