The San Diego Padres are enjoying one of their better seasons in quite some time. Entering play Tuesday night, the Padres are 12 games over .500 at 71-59. Winning the National League West is out of the equation because the Los Angeles Dodgers are on a near-historic pace for 114 wins this season.

Nevertheless, the Padres currently hold the third and final wild card spot in the National League. They are looking to claim a playoff berth for just the second time in the last 16 years. Two years ago they made it but were eliminated in the divisional round.

Credit to the Padres brass for going all in this season. They made some of the biggest trades in baseball to improve their team. That included the groundbreaking trade for Juan Soto and Josh Bell from the Washington Nationals. They also landed Brandon Drury in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds. But maybe the biggest shocker came in the deal with the Milwaukee Brewers for Josh Hader.

The Padres sent a big package to Milwaukee including Taylor Rogers, Dinelson Lamet and a number of prospects. As bad as the trade has been for Milwaukee, it's been even worse for the Padres. That leads me to the one fatal flaw San Diego needs to address in the final month of the 2022 season.

The Fatal Flaw the Padres Must Address in the Final Month of the Season

San Diego Bullpen

The first few months of the season, the Padres bullpen was elite. Rogers only allowed a single run over the first six weeks of the season and was leading the major leagues with 23 saves. Luis Garcia led a stable of set up men that were almost equally effective. The Padres bullpen seemed to be one of the strongest parts of the team. Seemingly overnight, that all changed.

Rogers went from being arguably the best closer in the game to struggling mightily. From the beginning of July forward, the Padres closer blew a number of saves and gave up runs in bunches. That prompted the trade for Hader. It was believed that would fix everything. It didn't.

Since acquiring the All-Star closer from the Brewers, his ability to even get an out appears to have evaded him. On Sunday, Hader allowed a career high six earned runs on five hits and two walks. He did that while pitching just one-third of an inning. That wasn't his only blow up in a San Diego uniform either.

Hader had already blown a save and taken a separate loss. He allowed three runs in each of those appearances. Hader's ERA since landing with the Padres is over 25.

That's left manager Bob Melvin with some tough decisions.

Garcia had acted as closer a few times this season, but had been scuffling himself lately. That left Melvin to turn to starter turned reliever Nick Martinez for closing duties. Martinez has done a good job of it so far, picking up a couple saves without a blown save. But that likely is not a long-term option.

Generally, managers need pitchers with strikeout stuff to close out games these days. Martinez has posted a 2.4 K/BB ratio, which is not what you want in the ninth inning. It's possible they go back to Garcia to see if he can get back on track. He does a much better job blowing his 100 mile-per-hour fastball by opposing hitters.

However it shakes out, unless Hader and Garcia can get back to performing the way they are capable, San Diego will have no chance if they make the postseason.