Padres News: Joe Musgrove Believes Team Has Taken Away Big Lessons from 2023 Struggles
The 2023 season was supposed to be a momentous step forward for the San Diego Padres as they looked to build on a great campaign from the season before.
San Diego advanced to the NLCS last season -- beating their division rival Los Angeles Dodgers along the way -- in their best year since they reached the World Series in 1998.
Everything was in place for the Friars to have a season similar to the one they experienced a quarter century ago, and a repeat trip to the Fall Classic wasn't too far fetched.
But for the team boasting stars like Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and the newly-signed Xander Bogaerts, this season has provided anything but magic.
San Diego opted not to sell star pitchers Blake Snell and Josh Hader before MLB's trade deadline, but their odds to even make it to October, much less have a run this fall, look bleak at best.
As of Saturday, the Padres are four games out of a wild card spot, but they trail four teams to climb into playoff position.
And if everything went according to plan, the Friars would be looking at goals much bigger than just getting to the postseason.
Despite their position, starting pitcher Joe Musgrove was able to find silver linings in an extremely disappointing season, mentioning the lessons the team has learned over these past four months.
“I think humility, probably,” he said. “Put your ego aside, put your accolades and who you are and the name that’s on the back of your jersey, putting that aside and be honest with yourself on what you’re bringing to the table every night — the level of effort, the commitment, the intensity, the focus. I think everyone in here, at some point in this year, can consider that they haven’t been at their best in all those departments. And that’s what you see from the best teams. There’s a consistency in all those areas day after day. I think the collection of people is a big part of that, too. When you have guys around you that you know are putting in the same amount of work that you are, that you know are as convicted in what they’re doing as you are, that creates the culture in the clubhouse.”
It's lessons the team hoped they wouldn't have to be learning in early August, but they'll try what they can now to turn one of the most disappointing seasons in baseball this year around.
They still have a chance.
But time? That's fading fast.
Helping the situation, the Padres learned on Friday that they'll be without Musgrove in the rotation for possibly the rest of the season.
